Swedish company Oriflame Cosmetics is this summer bringing over a 5,000-delegate conference, the largest ever to be held in Malta.
The conference has been attracted to Malta by Maltese destination management company (DMC) On Site Malta which bid for the conference at the last minute.
Oriflame Cosmetics sell cosmetic products through direct agents. The company gives incentives such as the Gold Conference being held in Malta to reward sales efforts. The company, which operates in 62 countries, holds such a conference in a Mediterranean country on a yearly basis and previous conferences have been held in Barcelona and Athens. Oriflame sells €1.3 billion worth of products annually. It has approximately 3.3 million consultants, 7,500 employees and a range of over 950 products.
Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco spoke about the conference, which is taking place between 29 August and 4 September. The Malta Tourism Authority and some of Malta’s leading suppliers, such as caterers, other DMCs, audio-visual businesses and translators, will be helping On Site Malta with organising the logistics and handling of the convention.
A total of 35,000 bed nights were booked with most beds available in five-star hotels and a number of four-star hotels completely blocked and to be used to full capacity. A total of 13 hotels in St Julians, Valletta and Attard will be used. The delegates will arrive at Malta mostly from Asia, Latin America, Europe, Russia and the Baltics.
On Site Malta director Paul Selis said the Oriflame Cosmetics conference is an impressive achievement for a DMC.
“Competitiveness in destination management is getting fiercer especially because of the recession. Last year a representative of Oriflame Cosmetics asked On Site Malta to quote the conference. Although we were late to bid, we thought it was a good exercise to measure whether Malta is able to host such a conference.
Dr de Marco said that 2009 was a very difficult year for the tourism industry, with the Conference and Incentive segment feeling the toll more than other sectors because many companies streamlined their spending in this area. It also suffered due to a perception fear, given that most companies felt that continuing to attend overseas conferences while making staff cuts was tantamount to negative public relations, he added.
The government has also financially supported a subsidy scheme for the public and parastatal sector through which a number of conferences are being organised in Malta. “So far, 26 conferences were organised through the scheme. Ten were organised last year, 13 will be organised this year, two will be held next year and one in 2012. These account for 10,300 delegates and 31,000 bed nights.
Provisional figures for 2009, said Dr de Marco, show that the Conference and Incentive sector together with Business Travel brought over 107,685 travellers to Malta, or 13.3 per cent of all tourists visiting Malta. The share was 0.8 per cent less than that of the previous year, he went on and added that the sector is of relevance because hotels are filled during the shoulder months and higher value visitors are attracted.
The prospects in the sector fit in the country’s vision and should leave a positive ripple effect in the economy, said Dr de Marco.