Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1515985
5 NEWS 15.2.2024 FROM PAGE 1 Zahra said the industry was also buoyed by strong tourist book- ings for the upcoming summer. "Already, 2024 is slightly better than 2023, with a 3 per cent seat capacity over last year," he said. "And last week, we have seen signs that seat capacity on the market might increase even further." Zahra's positive outlook for the crucial summer months comes in the wake of news this week that Malta welcomed over three mil- lion tourists to its shores in 2023, a first for the island. is figure represents an in- crease of over 8% compared to the previous record set in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandem- ic disrupted the travel industry, with nearly 2.8 million visitors to Malta. When announcing the 2023 re- sults, tourism minister Clayton Bartolo noted that the recovery took less than three years to sur- pass the 2019 levels, a year earlier than anticipated. He emphasized the successful efforts in diversify- ing markets, broadening the age range of visitors and expanding the reasons for visiting Malta. A presentation by MTA Dep- uty CEO and Chief Officer for Strategic Development Leslie Vella, showed how Malta's tour- ism recovery from the pandemic has outpaced that of many other Mediterranean countries. While global tourism numbers still lag behind pre-pandemic lev- els, at 88% of 2019 figures, trav- el to Mediterranean countries in Europe has increased by 1% compared to five years ago, a rate lower than Malta's impressive 8% rise. Tourists spent a total of €2.7 billion in Malta in 2023, averaging €132 per day per tourist, marking a one-fifth increase from 2019. In 2023, the majority of visi- tors originated from Italy, closely followed by the UK. Italian and British tourists comprised nearly 40% of all inbound tourists, with French and German visitors also showing strong numbers. Polish tourism experienced remarkable growth, with a 60% increase and over 167,000 Polish visitors to Malta last year. MTA CEO Carlo Micallef ex- plained MTA's marketing strategy – one that is data driven, focused on higher income experiential traveller demographics, agile to adjust to get best results and cus- tomer centric to engage with the potential tourists to our Islands. While emphasizing the signifi- cance of marketing initiatives, Micallef also highlighted the Au- thority's pivotal role in enhanc- ing Malta's appeal to tourists and refining its tourism offerings. He underscored the ongoing com- mitment to further improvement in the months and years ahead, aiming to sustain the revitaliza- tion of Malta's tourism industry. MTA Chairman Gavin Gulia said that the MTA has every rea- son to celebrate the fact that, once more, Malta is bucking the trend and outperforming the global and regional performances. He ex- tended thanks and appreciation to all MTA staff for their substan- tial contributions that culminated in this historic achievement. Strong January arrivals Also this week, Malta Interna- tional Airport confirmed a strong early start in 2024, announcing it had welcomed 465,482 passen- gers in January, exceeding the 400,000-passenger mark in Janu- ary for the first time since 2020. Passenger movements through MIA registered an upswing of 22.7 per cent over 2023, with traf- fic peaking on 6 January. e day brought the hectic holiday travel season to a close, as 151 flights carried 23,923 passengers to and from Malta International Airport. Aircraft movements totalled 3,511 in January, corresponding to a 23.4 per cent growth when compared with the same month in 2023. While seat capacity in- creased by 27.4 per cent over the reference year, load factor reg- istered a drop of 2.8 percentage points, as average occupancy on flights stood at 74 per cent. e top driver of traffic for Jan- uary was Italy (+24 per cent over 2023) with a market share of al- most 23 per cent, followed by the United Kingdom (+23 per cent), Poland (+59 per cent), Germany (+30 per cent) and France (-20 per cent). e most significant growth was observed in the Polish mar- ket, which has continued to grow steadily over the past years, over- taking Spain, France and Germa- ny to become Malta International Airport's third largest market in January 2024. Improved frequen- cies on flights to Polish destina- tions operated by Ryanair and Wizz Air for the winter season led the market to grow by 59 per cent year-on-year, with the Polish market accounting for c. 10% per cent of all passenger movements last month. Malta ranks among top performing airports in Europe for 2023 In a report published by Air- ports Council International (ACI) earlier this month regarding the full-year performance of airports across Europe for 2023, Mal- ta International Airport ranked among the top five performing airports within the EU+ region. Outperforming its peers in Spain and Italy, Malta placed fourth after registering full-year traffic growth of 6.7 per cent over 2019. Within the same mar- ket segment, Portugal (+12.2 per cent) and Greece (+12.1 per cent) placed first and second, respec- tively, while Iceland placed third with 6.9 per cent growth. BRITISH comedian and actor David Walliams' €120,000 paycheck for hosting the Malta Film Awards was part of an international marketing move, Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo said. Bartolo was pressed by journalists following news that the Maltese taxpayer forked out €120,000 to host the Malta Film Awards. e tourism minister was asked to justify the astronomical fee for one night, to which he responded that the marketing ef- forts, including having Walliams as host, had already brought good results for the industry. e Malta Film Awards' budget in 2022 was €400,000. However, Bartolo had stated that the Mal- ta Film Week had cost some €1.3 million. e costs of the Film Commission's events are often in the headlines. e commission is known to refrain from publishing its costs while refusing the media's attempts to shed light on its financial expenditure. On Wednesday, sister newspaper MaltaToday asked the tourism minister whether Walliams' role as host, along with other flashy and costly events hosted by the Film Commission was merely to feed Film Commissioner Johann Grech's vanity. "I don't agree with you," Bartolo said, implying that the events are an effort to maintain Malta's compet- itiveness as a destination for foreign film producers. Addressing mass criticism of the costly events the Film Commission is known for, Bartolo said, "e opposition wishes that Malta loses out from produc- tions." e newspaper also pointed out that during the same year, Maltese film producers were given a mere €600,000 by the government, and asked Bartolo whether he thinks this is justified when compared to Walliams' pay package. "First of all, we promised to increase those €600,000, and they have increased the following year," he not- ed, adding that that funding now falls under the Culture Ministry's portfolio, but did not address the disheartening difference in payments between Wal- liams and local film producers. e tourism minister was also asked why a court order was necessary for the publication of Walliams' pay package, to which he referred to confidentiality clauses in Walliams' contract. "If we break those confidentiality clauses, our coun- try's reputation is in danger, and I wanted to be sure that we don't tarnish our reputation," he said, noting that Malta's reputation is crucial for its film industry. Bartolo added that this year, Malta will once again host the Mediterrane Film Festival. Earlier this week, MaltaToday reported that the expenditure for the 2023 Mediterrane Film Festival is set to be published in the "coming days," according to the tourism min- ister. David Walliams €120,000 payment for awards was part of marketing strategy, minister says Tourism minister Clayton Bartolo Tourist bookings point to 'strong' summer Air Malta will cease operations on 30 March "Already, 2024 is slightly better than 2023, with a 3 per cent seat capacity over last year."