Tourist arrivals expected to reach 1.5 mln in Malta this year

Tourist arrivals in 2013 will exceed 1.5 million, an increase of nearly 9 percent over last year, Maltese Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella said in a press conference themed on the Budget 2014 on Thursday.

Vella said the tourism sector was witnessing an increase in its budget for next year with the aim of achieving even better results. He said he was particularly pleased that budgets had increased without resorting to austerity measures or tax increases for the industry.

Statistics show that the cruise liner industry had witnessed a decrease in arrivals down to 480,000 from 600,000 last year. However, the cruise liner arrivals are estimated to increase to 520,000 next year as the results of discussions with the industry recovered some of the losses.

Vella said efforts were under way to improve tourism performance in the shoulder months, and expressed satisfaction that numbers for October had surpassed the results for August last year. He said seat capacity for this winter had increased by nearly 9 percent over that of last winter.