L-R: Josef Formosa Gauci MTA CEO, Mr Joe Zammit Tabona Malta's High Commissioner in the UK, Dr Mario De Marco, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism and Mr Sam Mifsud Chairman MTA

Malta drives forward business at WTM'09

The Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) recently participated at this year’s World Travel Market (WTM) in London. The travel trade exhibition provided the ideal platform for the MTA to drive forward its business agenda with key trade partners, tour operators and prospective niche agencies, also raising awareness of the Maltese islands with the UK Media.

With over 60 trade and media appointments held at the stand, the fair played an important role in developing business for the Islands in 2010 and beyond. MTA also chose WTM 2009 to launch its new travel podcast series, designed to give visitors a local flavour of Malta and offer insight about the islands that isn’t available in traditional guidebooks.

The MTA’s 116 square metre stand featured an updated stand design divided into two reception areas for Malta and Gozo, with a special area designated for visitors to listen to the newly developed podcasts. The stand was attended by the Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Hon. Dr Mario De Marco and MTA staff from Malta and the UK.

Alex Incorvaja, UK & Ireland Director of the MTA, comments: “Feedback this year was generally a positive one, with operators commenting cautiously of an imminent turnaround from what they have been experiencing in the past 12 months. Forecasts for 2010 show that the winter period will still be a challenging one, with prospects in Summer however being better compared to this year”. The UK market is very important to the MTA, where the WTM gave us the opportunity to strengthen our ties with the key trade contacts and tour operators, forging a number of very valuable relationships with new and existing business partners.

The WTM is one of the UK’s largest travel trade exhibitions with over 5,000 global tourism and travel product exhibitors. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, WTM was visited by thousands of visitors and over 2,500 members of press.

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