Malta’s tourism is set to re-start in June. The tourism minister Clayton Bartolo announced that the island will be welcoming tourists to the island by the beginning of June and will injecting a €20 million aid package to support the industry which was hardly hit by the coronavirus.
The first tourists to come to Malta will be from European countries, but also from the United Kingdom, traditionally the island’s biggest tourism market.
Currently the UK, which contributes significantly to the tourism sector in Malta is on the red list which means travel from the UK is banned except for Maltese nationals and residents.
Minister Bartolo said that there will be 18 airlines coming to Malta this summer, four of which are new.
As for cruise liners, he indicated that by the end of June there would have been 34 port calls, noting that this means that Malta remains solidly on the itinerary of the major cruise liners.
The tourism industry is also considering a green pass for Maltese citizens: a digital certificate that will allow those who have taken the vaccine to move from one country to another with no restrictions holding them back.
The Tourism Recovery plan will also see a boost in advertisement campaigns, which will promote the narrative that Malta is “an ideal country that one can come to where the measures are respected”. A “more aggressive campaign” will be targeted to the UK in particular to draw in British tourists to the island. Campaigns have been finalized with Expedia, Tripadvisor, Trivago and Lastminute.com.
Despite the promising future that Bartolo outlines for the tourism sector, he nevertheless appeals to the Maltese and Gozitan citizens to “be prudent and responsible for ourselves and those around us”.
Malta SME Chamber said the announced plan is a sign that Malta is on the road to recovery. The Malta Chamber of SME had emphasised that this year-round it was expecting better planning and benefits out of a full year’s experience in dealing with the pandemic and also following the vaccine roll-out in Malta. As much as it understood the difficult and changing scenario, our country was in dire need of a plan for 2021.
“Recent positive developments on the health front are indeed encouraging and it is clear that the restrictions in place, combined with the vaccination strategy are working. It is essential that Malta does not let its guard down and therefore intensifying restrictions during the easter break was also a necessary move that we support. The SME Chamber therefore hopes that this will be the first important step that will lead to more visibility in relation to economic recovery”, the statement said.
The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) said on Tuesday that they are satisfied with this plan, and warned that keeping Malta front and centre in consumers’ minds will be critical when restarting international travel.
