“The Mediterranean’s best kept secret” was the title of Malta’s participation at the recent China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM), held at the China World Trade Centre in Beijing in April.

Maltese participants at COTTM included Air Malta (represented by its General Sales Agents for China – World Aviation Systems Ltd), Alpine Sterling Travel and Tourism of San Gwann, DHI (Dream Holidays International) Ltd of Attard, the two Radisson SAS properties in Malta together with the InterContinental Malta, the Grand Hotel Excelsior and The Palace.

This is the first time local companies participated in the show, yet “the interest shown in Malta was phenomenal”, said Alpine Sterling’s Warren Zahra, “as dozens of e-mails were received from Chinese companies wanting to meet Maltese participants.” All the participants agreed that the business potential for Malta is huge and that the future was very promising. The assistance given by the Maltese Ambassador for China Karl Xuereb and the staff of the Maltese Embassy in Beijing was instrumental in making this participation a success.

Over 1,500 professionals from all over China travelled to Beijing to visit COTTM 2008, the only business-to-business event dedicated to Chinese outbound travel and tourism. China together with India is now regarded as one of the two biggest growth markets for consumer goods as well as international travel.

Malta’s participation served as an initial step to tap into a market, which the World Tourism Organization predicts, will be the world’s largest outbound travel market, with over 100 million annual visitors by 2020. Today, China is one of the largest sources of outbound tourism throughout Asia and is the fastest growing tourism source for Europe and North America. Outbound Chinese tourism is growing at over 10 per cent per year, and by 2010 total outbound Chinese tourism will reach 50 million.

The success of COTTM 2008 augurs well for future possibilities to increase travel trade between China and Malta.