First three months of 2023 mark record tourist arrivals to Malta

In the first quarter of this year – January to March – Malta registered a record number of tourist arrivals, 443,191, which was 4.1% more than for the same period in 2019, the best year for Maltese tourism It was 17,000 more than the same period in 2019

Announcing the results that the National Statistics Office, NSO recorded at a press conference, Malta Tourism Authority, MTA said that the number of tourist nights also increased and reached almost three million nights, an increase of 3 8% over the same period of four years ago In the same months last year, when the country was still under pandemic restrictions, the increase amounted to almost 60%

In the same period, the total expenditure of tourists in Malta was also over €312 million, an increase of 14 7% over 2019's

3rd Startup Festival October

The third edition of Malta Enterprise's Startup Festival is to be held this October 5-6

Malta's strong recovery in the tourist sector has also been confirmed by the Malta International Airport, MIA, which predicts that by year's end, passenger traffic will reach 6 3 million passengers, an increase of 5,000 passengers over last year. The numbers are predicted to amount to about 95% of what the airport has seen in the best year for tourism so far, in 2019

Last year, the first year of natural recovery from the pandemic, MIA served 5.8 million passengers, roughly 80% of the passengers in 2019 This year MIA aims to have 6.3 million passengers and to reach the numbers it had in 2019

In a presentation during the annual general meeting, MIA's CEO said that the most significant amount of passengers (23%) were from Italy, 18.% from the United Kingdom, and 10% from France

Several projects are currently underway at the airport, including infrastructural ones They mainly include Apron X, which will increase the parking for planes, and the Skyparks 2 project, which consists of a hotel and many offices

The Minister for the Environment, Energy, and Enterprise Miriam Dalli, announced the dates at her meeting with 200 startups and investors during the Spring Meetup held as part of the preparations for the said event

The festival has established itself as one of the most popular events for entrepreneurs and innovators who come together to share knowledge and experiences about different startups

It attracts hundreds of local and foreign startups, varying from FinTech (including KYC/AML solutions), digital games, VR/AR, Metaverse, medical cannabis, BioTech, MedTech, and the blue economy

Minister Miriam Dalli said “Our focus is on attracting innovative businesses that may be relatively small in employment but generate above-average jobs in Malta” amount of €272 million. In 2019, every tourist spent around €640 during their stay, while in the first three months of the year, tourists spent around €705 per head, an increase of 10%.

Malta Tourism Authority CEO Carlo Micallef described the results as encouraging, especially compared to global trends, mainly with inflation and ever-increased prices It proves that the work the MTA has been doing in promoting Malta, even during the pandemic, is bearing fruit

The MTA kept in contact with its partners abroad and worked a lot on connectivity, even to fill seats to Malta, since 99% of the island's tourism comes by air That was the reason that the Maltese tourism sector has continued to grow, he said

While expressing his enthusiasm for the record figures achieved, Clayton Bartolo, the Tourism Minister said it is essential that the competition Malta’s tourism sector is facing is recognised Hence, it continues to diversify and overcome foreign competition

He said that sustainability, in this case, is a necessity, not a choice It was also crucial for Malta to maintain its national airline He said that the Government will be working towards this aim.