Interview with Johann Buttigieg, CEO, Malta Tourism Authority

21 Mar Interview with Johann Buttigieg, CEO, Malta Tourism Authority

You became the new CEO of the Malta Tourism Agency (MTA) just a few months before the pandemic started. Obviously it has been a very challenging time. What is your vision for the MTA, and what are some of the priority projects that you’re focusing on at the moment?

I was appointed CEO of the MTA two months before the pandemic hit our shores. Those were very challenging moments. At first, we were looking at how to safeguard and repatriate the nationals to their respective countries because, obviously at that time, priority was to close the borders. The government, through the Ministry of Health, immediately started, when there was the availability of the vaccine, to make a huge rollout of the vaccination program. As a country, we have given a top priority to the vaccination program. Today we have more than 97% of the population vaccinated. Also, we started on a massive rollout for the booster vaccination. This obviously has led us to have a quite a competitive advantage.

We have then piggybacked on that and have promoted Malta as one of the safest destinations in the Mediterranean with regards to Covid-19. Not just that, though. Malta is also very safe in terms of crime and robberies. I would say it is one of the safest places to be wherever you are.

We have also focused more on niche tourism, where we are not looking to attract the masses but actually to upgrade our product. This is in line with the national strategy where we need to get the numbers back.  But we’re not just promoting Malta as a sun and sea destination, we are also focusing on gastronomy, religious tourism, festival tourism, and on niches related to diving. In fact, last year we had a very successful diving season and tourism related to those who want to go for walks in the countryside, view the landscapes, see archaeology or scout tourism. Therefore, we are very much focusing on these types of new markets.

Our recovery plan was very successful. There are approximately 30% less people traveling to Malta compared to 2019, which was our record-breaking year for the number of passengers. However, although we received 30% fewer people than expected, it was compensated by the longer stays of tourists in Malta. The stay has actually increased from around 7.2 days to more than 10.3. Both the hotel industry and the restaurant sectors are quite happy with the recovery that has taken place up to now. Obviously, we would like to have a longer vision of what will happen with Covid-19, especially for the months of January and February, which in 2019 was focused more on the MICE industry. For the time being we are not seeing MICE taking place.

Currently people are booking their holidays approximately between 7 to 15 days in advance. We need to work more on that. We need to bring it up as it was pre-Covid, where people used to book three or four months in advance. Up to last week, I was very optimistic that we would reach that target in a couple of weeks. But now, with the Omicron variant, that’s not really something that can happen too shortly. It is not just enough to have a safe destination, also your source markets need to have the feel-good factor. Otherwise, they will not travel, they would have additional restrictions; nobody wants to travel, when at home they are not feeling safe. These are the challenges that we need to continue to battle.

I wanted to touch a little bit on the Dubai Expo. How important is the Middle East market for Malta? What do you expect from Dubai Expo 2020? And how is Malta presenting itself under the theme “Connecting Cultures, Generating Opportunities”?   

The Dubai Expo for us is a platform where we can boost what we offer, and not just offer family and friends tourism, but also to attract business towards Malta. This obviously gives us a very good platform to expose the rich culture that we have: Malta has one of the richest cultures in the Mediterranean. Also, we will be promoting gastronomy. Since last year, Malta has joined Michelin, and we now have more than five restaurants with Michelin stars. This year we have also launched the Forbes partnership. Forbes, for us, is important because it is very well-known in the American market, and we want to make Malta as the meeting place between the American, the Asian, and the African markets. As we are a very safe destination, getting this mix of cultures in one destination in order to provide the service to all those that are from different cultures. This is why the Dubai Expo is important for us.

You said gastronomy would be one of the priority areas. Are there any specific products that you are catering for the Emirati market?

There are. With the English language, we feel that Malta — which also has an Arab decent — can attract students to come and study here. Other products are adventure seeking, families, and long stays. We need to also understand that the climate of Malta is the opposite than the one in Dubai. When it’s winter in Dubai, here it’s summer and vice versa. We need to attract those periods where people have their holidays; especially people from the Southern hemisphere, where there is an inverse season.

Is there anything specific that you want to mention that maybe we didn’t cover in this brief interview?

We have quite an interesting project coming up: Marija. our first virtual citizen. We are going to be one of the first countries to actually have a virtual citizen. It is a project being led by a Canadian company, and Marija will be giving a lot of information about Malta whenever she is asked questions by people visiting our Tourist Information Centres and other spots around the island. The plan is for Marija to become the ultimate influencer, thus making it one of our strong points as we will seek to be promoting Malta. We helped the industry quite a lot over the last few months through a number of schemes to ensure that it remains resilient. Subsidies of more than €20 million were given throughout the Covid-19 period, excluding the help that was given by the Malta Enterprise of more than €800 per person per month throughout the Covid-19 period.

Our importance at this stage is not to bring in the masses but to bring in quality tourists, and to give the assurance that Malta will remain and is a safe destination to enjoy. We would like people to come to Malta and enjoy themselves, and not worry about getting Covid. Malta has a very strict protocol at the airport: checks are done rigorously to each and every passenger before coming to the island, and unless they are double vaccinated, they will not be allowed to enter the country. We are one of the very few countries which checks at the border. Unfortunately, at the border, there is some inconvenience, as you have to present the documents and so on, but once you are in the country, you can enjoy yourself.