The government is set to announce fiscal incentives for local artists, Culture Minister Owen Bonnici said today. 

The proposal, which was part of the Labour Party’s electoral manifesto, will be key in ensuring artists are able to pursue their field without added financial pressure, Bonnici explained.

The Minister was speaking at a press conference regarding the results of surveys of the first six months of V18 - Valletta is the capital city of culture in Europe for the whole year.

Over 317,000 people have attended around 200 V18 events for the first six months of the year with 1,500 local artists and 166 international artists taking part, V18 Chairman Jason Micallef revealed. 

110,000 visited the capital at the v18 opening, while 70,000 people attended the Valletta Celebrations on New Year’s Eve.

Il-Festa l-Kbira also saw a large attendance with 40,000 visiting the city. 

The Valletta Green Festival was also a success, with 30,000 visiting the festival last May, he said.

Micallef stressed the V18 extended beyond event within the city pointing to a number of events held across all of the Maltese islands, such as Altofest Malta 2018. 

V18 has also provided a number of jobs, Bonnici said. 

The result showed that as of 2017, around 10,201 were employed within creative and cultural industries, up for 8,618 in 2014. 

Around 93%  of the 10,201 are employed on a full-time basis within the private sector, whilst the remaining are employed by the public sector. 

Part-time employment has also increased up to 1,912 in 2017 from 1,612 in 2014. 

Figures provided by the Malta Tourism Authority showed that around 15% of tourists come to Malta for cultural reasons.

Parliamentary Secretary for V18 Deo Debattista said that the figures were the result of the government’s significant cultural investment over the last few years.