Insider Special Edition 2015 | Page 15

Our country must convey a strong message that Malta is a destination of all seasons Our country must convey a strong message that Malta is a destination of all seasons. We need to ensure that visitors have an even wider range of events and activities to choose from to help position ourselves better than our competition. I am pleased to note that arrivals in January to March of this year increased by almost 8% to reach 250,000. Substantial growth was also registered in bed nights and tourism expenditure, with the latter rising by almost 9% compared to the previous year. The first quarter of 2015 also registered the highest increase ever recorded in per capita expenditure for this period (January to March), since 2007. When reviewing the trend over the two years since this Government took office, the number of tourists arriving in Malta & Gozo between the months of January and March has risen by a significant 16%, while tourist expenditure for these same months has seen an even better increase of 17.4% since 2013.  These positive and optimistic results clearly demonstrate that the overall policies and initiatives implemented by Government for this sector are functioning well. However, one needs to also bear in mind the importance and the necessity for improving the quality of our product. The tourism industry has established itself fi rmly as the central pillar of Malta’s economy and a resilient driver of economic growth. I believe that in order to further build on this success, while we aim to maintain its growth we also need to ensure we exploit new opportunities to face upcoming challenges and fierce competition from other countries that are all gearing up to attract more tourism to their shores. Therefore, we will direct more effort at improving the quality of the product on offer and increase quality standards of appeal to more high-end tourists. As stated within the National Tourism Policy 2015 – 2020 it is imperative to improve the aesthetics and the environmental quality of our tourism zones, the landscaping and attention to the design and detail of our product. "...arrivals in January to March of this year increased by almost 8% to reach 250,000" INSIDER SPECIAL EDITION 2015 13