Malta present at record breaking ITB Fair

Valletta/Frankfurt, March 15^th 2011

 

The Malta Tourism Authority, together with Air Malta and several tourism industry partners from Malta and Gozo was again present at the ITB Berlin Fair 2011.  This fair is considered the world’s leading trade show for the international travel and tourism industry.

 

Dr. Mario de Marco Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Environment and Culture, MTA Chairman Louis Farrugia, MTA CEO Josef Formosa Gauci, as well as Air Malta Chairman Sonny Portelli were present for meetings with representatives of leading tour operators as well as conducting various media interviews.

 

On March the 10^th, during a very well attended travel trade and press event at the Malta stand, Dr. de Marco gave an update about the latest developments within Malta and Gozo’s tourism industry. In addition, the Parliamentary Secretary presented awards to the three best performing graduates of MTA Germany’s newly revamped online training programme for travel agents, the “Malta Akademie”. Later in the evening, H.E. Karl R. Xuereb, Resident Ambassador of the Republic of Malta in Germany, was also present at the Malta event and welcomed the Maltese ITB delegation to a reception at the Malta Embassy in.

 

During a live interview on “Sonnenklar TV”, a popular German holiday sales channel, Mr Formosa Gauci presented the diverse tourism product offered by Malta and Gozo. He stated that the Malta Tourism Authority and its partners from Malta and Gozo will look back at ITB 2011 as being a very positive experience.

 

This year’s fair, marking the 45^th edition of ITB, is statistically the best fair since its inception, attracting a record of 110,791 trade visitors, 11,163 exhibiting companies and organisations from 188 countries.  All exhibitors achieved a significantly larger volume of business than they did last year, with a value of over six billion euros. The good volume of business at the trade show provided an additional boost to the current upturn in the international tourism sector.

 

Despite the fact that the weekend provided a first taste of spring, with bright sunshine, large numbers of people from Berlin and Brandenburg flocked to the exhibition halls. Initial projections revealed that some 60,000 members of the general public took this opportunity to learn first hand about the 188 travel destinations present at the Messe Berlin fairgrounds.