ISSUE

05April2016

this issueRevamped Salini Resort aims for fifth star P2KM launches Palermo service P3Cruise traffic up 91 in Q1 P6Brexit Flying out of the window P7 Language students play truant as arrivals slip P13Data bank P9 bull A little birdie told me P14

Published 27 April 2016

Environment tax already being charged by online booking services

MostaJ They all made a fuss about the environment con-tribution Some predicted it would be the end of Maltarsquos tourism industry Others like the federation of travel agents were miffed because they felt they had been left out of the negotia-tionsR The incoming agentsrsquo argument made public on 11 April ndash 11 days after the tax was supposed to have been introduced ndash was that nearly half of Maltarsquos arrivals come on package tours paid for in advance Consequently the tax would have to be ab-sorbed by tour operatorsR In its complaint FATTA says ldquothe total lack of infor-mation on the tax until the eleventh hour is inconsid-erate to the industryrdquoR The federation ldquofeels the government has chosen to ignore the fact that 44 of touristsrsquo arrivals come on organised package holidays which are typically priced many months in advance and that tour operators sell-ing such packages are very often committed to honour brochure prices and absorb any additional costs that may be imposedR ldquoThe governmentrdquo continues FATTA ldquobecame

involved in long-winded discussions with just one stakeholder on the method of collection of the tax R ldquoThese protracted discussions with the hotel sector resulted in an unnec-essary delay in communicating the details to the trade even forcing the government to

delay the introduction date by two months from the original plan The details have now only been commu-nicated to operators effectively giving them less than eight weeksrsquo noticerdquoR Indeed associations such as the MHRA saw the introduction of the environment tax as a means of lev-erage to force the government into ensuring that all ac-commodation providers are licensed before they would play ball As the tax collectors (licensed) hoteliers feel they have the upper handR ldquoIf someone is operating a property they have to abide by regulations Otherwise the guys who are already regulated licensed and paying the 50c environ-ment contribution per tourist per day will run out of business We need to have a level playing fieldrdquo insists

Bookingcom lsquofeersquo sounds better than tax

Getaroomcom lsquoresort feersquo sounds even better than tax

Venerecom the lsquodestination feersquo is already mandatory

Continued on column 1 page 2

2

MHRA president Tony Zahra saidR The upshot is that the govern-ment not only agreed to postpone the introduction of the tax until 1 June instead of 1 April but also reiterated that ldquoall accommodation providers [are] to be licensed by the Malta Tourism Authority and in addition [are] to provide third-par-ty liability insurance to cover accidents injury or bodily harm including deathrdquo (see Island Travel Trader 1 P2 4 P5)R The environment contribution of euro050 per night payable by all tourists aged 18 and over for every night spent in paying accommoda-tions and capped at a maximum of euro5 per person per visit is expect-ed to generate some euro6mn a year and will be used to smarten up the environmentR As tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis put it ldquoI have decid-ed to introduce the environmental contribution where all revenue generated will solely and exclusive-ly be directed toward the improve-ment and embellishment of the local infrastructure while offering an improved product in general of the Maltese islandsrdquoR Meantime it seems that no one bothered to tell online hotel reservation services that the intro-duction of the environment contri-bution has been postponed for two monthsR Since the beginning of the month the major booking services have including the tax in their pricesR These include Bookingcom who call it an environment fee Venere Expedia and Hotelscom refer to it as a destination fee Getaroomcom calls it a resort fee R All do specify the tax is not in-cluded in the overall price and one assumes itrsquos payable at the hotel as of nowR When Island Travel Trader questioned the MHRA and several hotels about this all were surprised that the tax was includedR ldquoItrsquos clearly shown that itrsquos from 1 Junerdquo said the DoS of a five-star property No itrsquos notR If anything may damage the tourism industry itrsquos a tax that doesnrsquot exist yet

Continued from page 1

SalinaJ If you walk into the lobby of the four-star Salini Resort yoursquoll not recognise it as the former Coastline HotelR When Claret Holdings bought the property from the Island Hotels Group in 2014 for euro14mn it closed it for a major renovationR The hotel soft opened at the end of last year as the Salini Resort with 237 rooms spread over seven floors up from the previous 207 roomsR Two floors were added that in-clude two penthouses with private pools self-catering studios execu-tive suites and de luxe rooms R All standard rooms have been refurbished and upgraded in ele-gant muted tones that ldquotogether with a mix of textures of Maltese hardstone and rubble walls typical of the Maltese landscape create an ambience of elegant timelessness calm and peacerdquoR All the public areas have been renovated and in some cases their usage changed For instance the former offices have been converted into 17 classrooms and a confer-ence hall has been turned into an FampB outlet-cum-lounge for lan-guage studentsR Sean Le Gaultrsquos Claret Holdings is affiliated to the European School of English and part of the hotel ndash including 100 bedrooms ndash has been earmarked for this purpose And a second pool has been built for students

R Students are lsquoelegantlyrsquo segregat-ed to ensure minimum inconven-ience of other guestsR On the food and beverage front the Salini Resort has a cafeteria two restaurants ndash one of which has been leased to Michael Diacono of Giuseppirsquos fameR Like the former Coastline in this incarnation the hotel sports lavish meeting facilities and a new hall that can accommodate up to 1000 peopleR Moreover the resort has a fully-equipped gym with sauna a heated indoor pool whirlpool steam room two tennis courts and an outdoor swimming pool To complete the leisure facilities a new Myoka-branded spa recently openedR The revamped Salini Resort an unashamedly stylish hotel with its perfect location overlooking Salina Bay and the historic salt pans is now poised for a fifth starR The management feel confident that the hotel has reached the standard required to join the ranks of a five star If and when this hap-pens the Salini Resort will be the first five-star hotel on the islandrsquos northern coast

February arrivals up 9

VallettaJ Arrivals were up 97 in Febru-ary from 74189 in 2015 to 81386 this year the NSO reports

Salini Resort unashamedly stylish hotel overlooking Salina Bay

Revamped Salini Resort exudes luxury aims for fifth star

Continued on column 1 page 3

2

MHRA president Tony Zahra saidR The upshot is that the govern-ment not only agreed to postpone the introduction of the tax until 1 June instead of 1 April but also reiterated that ldquoall accommodation providers [are] to be licensed by the Malta Tourism Authority and in addition [are] to provide third-par-ty liability insurance to cover accidents injury or bodily harm including deathrdquo (see Island Travel Trader 1 P2 4 P5)R The environment contribution of euro050 per night payable by all tourists aged 18 and over for every night spent in paying accommoda-tions and capped at a maximum of euro5 per person per visit is expect-ed to generate some euro6mn a year and will be used to smarten up the environmentR As tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis put it ldquoI have decid-ed to introduce the environmental contribution where all revenue generated will solely and exclusive-ly be directed toward the improve-ment and embellishment of the local infrastructure while offering an improved product in general of the Maltese islandsrdquoR Meantime it seems that no one bothered to tell online hotel reservation services that the intro-duction of the environment contri-bution has been postponed for two monthsR Since the beginning of the month the major booking services have including the tax in their pricesR These include Bookingcom who call it an environment fee Venere Expedia and Hotelscom refer to it as a destination fee Getaroomcom calls it a resort fee R All do specify the tax is not in-cluded in the overall price and one assumes itrsquos payable at the hotel as of nowR When Island Travel Trader questioned the MHRA and several hotels about this all were surprised that the tax was includedR ldquoItrsquos clearly shown that itrsquos from 1 Junerdquo said the DoS of a five-star property No itrsquos notR If anything may damage the tourism industry itrsquos a tax that doesnrsquot exist yet

Continued from page 1

SalinaJ If you walk into the lobby of the four-star Salini Resort yoursquoll not recognise it as the former Coastline HotelR When Claret Holdings bought the property from the Island Hotels Group in 2014 for euro14mn it closed it for a major renovationR The hotel soft opened at the end of last year as the Salini Resort with 237 rooms spread over seven floors up from the previous 207 roomsR Two floors were added that in-clude two penthouses with private pools self-catering studios execu-tive suites and de luxe rooms R All standard rooms have been refurbished and upgraded in ele-gant muted tones that ldquotogether with a mix of textures of Maltese hardstone and rubble walls typical of the Maltese landscape create an ambience of elegant timelessness calm and peacerdquoR All the public areas have been renovated and in some cases their usage changed For instance the former offices have been converted into 17 classrooms and a confer-ence hall has been turned into an FampB outlet-cum-lounge for lan-guage studentsR Sean Le Gaultrsquos Claret Holdings is affiliated to the European School of English and part of the hotel ndash including 100 bedrooms ndash has been earmarked for this purpose And a second pool has been built for students

R Students are lsquoelegantlyrsquo segregat-ed to ensure minimum inconven-ience of other guestsR On the food and beverage front the Salini Resort has a cafeteria two restaurants ndash one of which has been leased to Michael Diacono of Giuseppirsquos fameR Like the former Coastline in this incarnation the hotel sports lavish meeting facilities and a new hall that can accommodate up to 1000 peopleR Moreover the resort has a fully-equipped gym with sauna a heated indoor pool whirlpool steam room two tennis courts and an outdoor swimming pool To complete the leisure facilities a new Myoka-branded spa recently openedR The revamped Salini Resort an unashamedly stylish hotel with its perfect location overlooking Salina Bay and the historic salt pans is now poised for a fifth starR The management feel confident that the hotel has reached the standard required to join the ranks of a five star If and when this hap-pens the Salini Resort will be the first five-star hotel on the islandrsquos northern coast

February arrivals up 9

VallettaJ Arrivals were up 97 in Febru-ary from 74189 in 2015 to 81386 this year the NSO reports

Salini Resort unashamedly stylish hotel overlooking Salina Bay

Revamped Salini Resort exudes luxury aims for fifth star

Continued on column 1 page 3

3

R The majority of arrivals 66137 were tourists whilst 9291 travelled to the islands on business (see So-cio-demographic profile of travellers 2016 on page 10)R The largest proportion of arriv-als were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 bracketR The total number of nights spent on the islands in February went up by 104 to 581394 when com-pared to February 2015 Most guest nights (698) were spent in hotelsR Total tourist expenditure was estimated at euro578mn an increase of 96 over the corresponding month of last year

KM launches Palermo service

LuqaJ Air Malta will start scheduled year-round services to Palermo on 4 July This will be the second desti-nation KM serves in SicilyR This frequency is in addition to the 13 weekly flights from Malta to CataniaR ldquoThis is more good news for our customersrdquo says Ursula Silling Air Maltarsquos chief commercial officer ldquoWe are thrilled to launch new flights to Palermorsquos Falcone-Bor-sellino airportrdquoR Flights will be operated on Mon-days and Thursdays On Mondays ETD from MIA will be at 1315 with a planned arrival in Palermo an hour later The return flight will take-off at 1505 and arrive in Mal-ta at 1555R The Thursday service will be operated in the evenings with a de-parture time of 1950 and an arrival time of 2050 at Falcone-Borsellino The return leg will be at 2140 and

arrive at MIA at 2230R Air Malta expects to carry 20000 passengers on this route in the first year of operationsR ldquoAs part of our constant sched-ule improvements we have also retimed some of our Catania flights to offer better connectivity with our services to major European cities These initiatives are expect-ed to facilitate business opportuni-ties between the two islandsrdquo adds Silling

Hilton Malta reopens after euro15mn renovation St JulianrsquosJ On Saturday 16 April at noon the Hilton Malta reopened its doors after a 10 week euro15mn ldquointensive programme of refurbish-mentrdquoR The refurbishment included the overhaul of 293 rooms new food and beverage outlets extended executive lounge facilities new lifts as well as ldquonew engineering technology to provide more energy efficient operationsrdquoR Hotel owners Leli and Ninu Fenech general manager Matthew Mullan the propertyrsquos staff and first guests Tad Zurlinden and Dominic Tidey were all present for the hoisting of the Malta EU and hotel flags

MTA wins gold at Austriarsquos Werbe Grand Prix

ViennaJ At TAIrsquos Werbe Grand Prix the Malta Tourism Authorityrsquos Aus-tria office placed first in audience ratings and was awarded a gold medal for its wwwvisitvallettade web portalR Voting was held online and during the Reise Salon fair held in mid-AprilR wwwvisitvallettade provides ex-tensive information about Vallettarsquos varied tourist and cultural offers and serves as a marketing tool for the promotion of the capital as a short and city break destination as well as the European Capital of Culture 2018R The site was developed by the MTArsquos Frankfurt office in 2012 and

is accompanied by a hard copy bro-chure which was recently revisedR The Werbe Grand Prix mean-while is an event held by Austrian travel trade magazine TAI (Touris-mus Austria International) This year it considered 273 entries in six categories ndash hotel brochures destination brochures tourism brochures and posters social me-dia web sites and televisionradio commercials

KM to turn Airbus into a lsquoflying discorsquo

LuqaJ on 21 July 141 people ndash willing to fork out from euro240 a head ndash can fly on an Air Malta Airbus to Ibiza and be treated (or possibly subject-ed) to an ldquoexclusive experience of a lsquoparty in the skyrsquordquoR The special two-hour long flight chartered by Events by Martin a locally-based events promoter will include two DJs spinning the tracks ndash turntables will be installed instead of the first row of seats on the starboard side of the aircraft ndash a custom sound system will also be fitted on board as will special lightingR Passengers will get the ldquofull VIP treatment and will be treated with a special inflight servicerdquo The flight will depart at 2250R This shindig doesnrsquot come cheap For starters tickets are one way and start at euro240 per person in economy euro300 for economy plus and euro490 for a business class seat Add another euro20 for 20kgs of bag-gageR On top of that therersquos an esca-lating additional cost buy a Y class ticket and pay euro960 lsquobooking feersquo euro12 for economy plus and euro1960 is

Oops

J In the March issue we carried a story about the Maritime Anto-ninersquos upgradeR Inadvertently we said the four-star property will have 157 rooms in fact it should have read 219 roomsR Apologies for the error

Continued from page 2

Air Malta lsquoyoung and innovativersquo

Continued on column 1 page 4

4

the booking fee if you plan to buy a business class ticket (No ticket is refundable this is stated twice in the TampCs)R ldquoThe organisation of this flight as requested by the organisers pre-sented an operational challenge to the airlinerdquo says Joseph Galea KMrsquos deputy chief commercial officer R ldquoHowever Air Malta took the challenge and together with its engineering department and flight safety office conducted various tests to ensure that all equipment can safely be transported in the cabin and all international stand-ards and regulations are followed Moreover Air Malta will be taking extra precautions to ensure cabin safety during the flightrdquo R ldquoWe are really excited to organ-ise this unique flight and offer our guests a safe entertaining inflight experience like no other This event fits perfectly with our aspiration to be a young and innovative travel operatorrdquo Galea addsR This event will be filmed and photographed and shared on the airlinersquos social media

Be eco-certified

St JulianrsquosJ The beHotel formerly the Bay Street Hotel has been eco-certified by the MTAR The four-star property has just completed a refurbishment pro-gramme (see Island Travel Trader 3 P6)R The eco-certification scheme in-troduced in 2003 is based on envi-ronmental criteria set by the Malta Tourism Authority It is awarded to tourism accommodation establish-ments that pass an environmental audit on an annual basis There are 22 hotels and seven farmhouses that are eco-certified

Malta in ST-EP

SeoulJ Malta is one of the 37 countries to sign the Sustainable Tourism Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) Initi-ative of the United Nationsrsquo World Tourism OrganisationR The signing ceremony was held

in South Korearsquos capital at the end of MarchR ST-EP is built around 115 sus-tainable tourism projects in Africa Latin America Europe and the Middle East in close collaboration with local governments national authorities and NGOs in the bene-ficiary countriesR The projects include training of local guides and hotel employees establishing business links between poor producers and tourism enter-prises amongst others

Winter breaks weather records LuqaJ We donrsquot normally carry weather stories but since this last winter was exceptional and it did affect the tourism industry we thought wersquod break the mouldR With 996mm of rain winter was almost four times drier than it was last year becoming the driest win-ter on record according to MIArsquos met officeR This allowed the Maltese islands to enjoy weather traditionally experienced in spring but it caused parched fields and a poor crop yield R A quick look at last winterrsquos weather ndash one of the mildest in liv-ing memory ndash shows that rain was scarce and sea and air temperatures were higher than usual

R The highest air temperatures registered for each month of winter were close to the maximum tem-peratures recorded in April and May 2015 This yearrsquos unusually warm winter was a phenomenon that hit most of Europe affecting animal behaviour and plantsrsquo flow-ering patterns R Locally days were much bright-er than usual with 19 February enjoying a maximum of 102 hours of sunshine which is only 04 hours less than the mean sunshine hours recorded for August 2015 Exceptionally bright days were also experienced on 23 December and 26 January R Although December was the wettest month of winter the 458mm of rain were still signifi-cantly less than the 1048mm norm for this time of the year R With a mere 26mm of precipi-tation February 2016 was both the driest month last winter as well as the driest February on record since 1923R Between them January and March registered just over 51mm of precipitation and the two hail occurrences for winter R Peaking at 236degC Februaryrsquos temperature became the highest for this month in 93 years Inter-estingly Alaska also experienced its warmest February in a stretch of more than 90 years Locally the highest temperature in winter was reached in March at 246degC while it dropped to its lowest of 59degC in January R The sea was also warmer than usual throughout winter with January registering the highest ever sea-surface temperature for this month at 176degC In Decem-ber raincoats could practically be traded for swimsuits as sea temper-atures were in the region of 186degCR Meantime farmers are predict-ing an extremely wet August

Kempinski completes refurbishment programme

San LawrenzJ The five star Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz has just reopened after the completion of a euro6mn

Continued from page 3

Winter the new arrivals season Continued on column 1 page 5

5

renovation programmeR Works included the refurbish-ment of rooms including new bathrooms equipped with rain shower new beds upholstery and light control switchesR All rooms and suite catego-ries have now been installed with a state-of-the-art noiseless air conditioning system which greatly reduces consumption and there-by minimizes the hotelrsquos carbon footprint

Azure Ultra charter luxury on the high sea

VittoriosaJ Fancy a day of luxury and pam-pering on the high sea You can have it for just euro4700 If thatrsquos too pricey therersquos the more lsquocompet-itiversquo option at euro1500 on a 15m yacht appropriately named Miss MoneypennyR And if yoursquore on a tight budget you could choose the brunch and bubbly experience for euro750 This will buy you a half-day aboard the same Miss MoneypennyR On the other hand if money is no object and you have euro27500 to spare you could charter the 20m Amore Mio for a weekR All of these goodies are availa-ble from Azure Ultra Billing itself ldquoMaltarsquos premier luxury yacht char-ter provider Azure Ultra prides itself on its upscale service which sets it apart in the local charter scenerdquo R Azure Ultra based at Vittoriosarsquos

marina started its luxury yacht charter operation last year and launched the 2016 season in early April itrsquos a member of the Azure Group that manages two timeshare operations at the Radisson Blu Resort amp Spa Golden SandsR Azure Ultrarsquos fleet is made up of three Sunseeker yachts Miss Moneypenny the 186m Donrsquot Ask and the most recent addition Mio Amore ndash that has three guest cabins sleeping six plus one for the crewR Both Amore Mio and Donrsquot Ask have international licenses meaning they can be chartered for travel abroad And all charter rates include a captain a stewardess and insurance fees Day charters include a light lunch with drinks and sufficient fuel for 56km Addi-tionally the yachts are equipped to offer water sportsR The yachts may be chartered for a day overnight three nights or per week or for bespoke programmes to suit all requirementsR Like its sister company Azure Ultra also offers fractional yacht ownership ndash fancy speak for time-shareR A lsquofractionrsquo of a yacht is price tagged at euro63000 berthing is in-cluded in the price but yoursquoll have to fork out another euro850 a year in running costsR Azure Ultrarsquos ldquorealistically af-fordable optionshellipplace the high life on board a luxury Sunseeker within easy reach of aspiring yacht owners while guaranteeing a splendid hassle-free time at seardquo

Malta ndash like flying into a Picasso painting

LuqaJ Malta International Airport has topped a global poll of the worldrsquos most scenic landingsR Conducted by the private jet booking service PrivateFly the company asked its clients for their most scenic airport approaches in its annual survey with the most votes this year going to MIA (The poll was carried out in February and March and more than 7500 people voted A total of 115 air-ports were nominated)

Continued from page 4

Azure Ultra realistically affordable luxury afloat

R One voter says ldquoLanding on this gem in the Mediterranean Sea is not to be missed The islands of Malta and Gozo fit into your windowthe sea the blue skies the landscape the greenery the cities the temples and all the colours that this beautiful island has to offer Beats any landing by farrdquoR Adam Twidell CEO of Pri-vateFly and an experienced pilot comments ldquoFlying into Malta is a truly special experience ndash itrsquos a tiny island landing that packs a big punch There is so much to take in Without being hectic the landscape changes from coast to farmland to the historic city of Val-letta Itrsquos like flying into a Picasso paintingrdquoR MIArsquos CEO Alan Borg adds ldquoWe are truly flattered by this award and the feedback Malta International Airport received in this poll which strengthens our

Top 10 scenic airports

1 Malta International Airport Malta2 Nice Cote Drsquo Azur Airport France3 Queenstown Airport New Zealand4 Barra Airport Scotland UK5 Juancho E Yrausquin Airport Saba Dutch Caribbean6 Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Canada7 Donegal Airport Ireland8 Princess Juliana International Airport St Maarten Dutch Caribbean9 Los Angeles International Airport US10 London City Airport UK

Continued on column 1 page 6

6

belief that Malta enthrals visitors from their first glimpse and offers a unique experience year-round We hope that topping PrivateFlyrsquos poll will boost our ongoing efforts to entice guests who have not yet experienced our islands to discover our rich history culture hospitality and underwater world first handrdquo

Cruise traffic up 91 in Q1

VallettaJ Cruise liner passenger traffic in the first three months of the year was up 907 over the correspond-ing quarter of last year A total of 39375 passengers visited the islands in Q1 up from 20653 last yearR In Q1 17 cruise liners called at the Grand Harbour eight more than last year (see Cruise ship traf-fic 2016 on page 13)R As expected the majority of cruise line passengers were EU nationals ndash 659R The most dramatic statistic relates to Maltese nationals In Q1 of 2015 just one Maltese went on a cruise this time round 72 did ndash an increase of 7100 Americans were the largest number of non-Eu-ropean passengersR On a gender basis females made up 533 of the total whilst the biggest share of passengers were in the 60-79 age bracket

Continued from page 5

IstanbulJ To celebrate UEFA EURO 2016 this summer Turkish Airlines has un-veiled an A330-300 painted in the competitionrsquos liveryR In mid-April the aircraft made its maiden flight to Paris the location of this yearrsquos final on 10 July and is ldquojust one component of Turkish Airlinesrsquo drive to excite fans ahead of this yearrsquos tournamentrdquoR The livery was created by UEFA and Turkish Airlines as part of the air-linersquos partnership with the competition and role as official airline partner of Euro 2016 The sponsorship will also see the airline announcing a series of ticket giveaway competitions unique EURO 2016 airport ldquoexperiencesrdquo for passengers and a series of fan zones throughout the host French cities once matches get underway on 10 June R The Airbus wrapped in the UEFA EURO 2016 colours will fly to a se-lected number of destinations across TArsquos network

Turkish Airlines unwraps UEFA Airbus livery

Air Navia lsquolinkingrsquo Aalborg and Malta

AalborgJ Air Navia is a new Danish company that calls itself a low cost carrier but it does not have any aircraftR It is understood it was trying to charter a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 from Danish Air Transport but so far it hasnrsquotR The company also hopes to obtain an air operatorrsquos certificate (AOC) within the next three years

chief commercial officer Mathias Madsen is reported to have saidR Set up last November Air Navia is offering flights from Aalborg to Malta Crete Rhodes Corfu Gran Canaria Tenerife Fuerteventura Varna (Bulgaria) and Gazipasa (Turkey)R Flights to Malta actually oper-ated by SAS are on Sundays from March to October and cost around euro705 for the round tripR Frederik Holmstrom Air Naviarsquos marketing coordinator tells Island Travel Trader the lsquoairlinersquo has ldquotak-en between 20-40 seats of our own on each routerdquoR In lsquoolden timesrsquo operations such as these were known as airline con-solidators Today itrsquos referred to as a lsquovirtual airlinersquo

Space rental set to drive sharing economy

BasingstokeJ New data from UK-based Juni-per Research has found that shared space providers including Airbnb and WeWork are set to see plat-form revenues surpass those taken

by ride-sharing providers Uber and Lyft by 2019R Juniperrsquos latest research ndash Shar-ing economy opportunities impacts and disruptors 2016-2020 ndash found that shared space platforms such as Airbnb are allowing users to rent rooms in residential properties at rates often undercutting traditional hotel rooms disrupting the leisure and tourism industry significantlyR With these providers taking a proportion of reservation and booking fees revenues are set to grow from an estimated euro205bn in 2015 to euro54bn globally by 2019R The research discovered that the ease of use provided by Airbnb in terms of no-nonsense booking as well as the financial rewards avail-able to registered property owners will see a surge in both listings and bookingsR Forecast growth in the shared space industry will hold signifi-cant concern for the hotel indus-try where in many cases shared space providers are not bound by the same rules and regulations as traditional establishments leading

Continued on column 1 page 14

7

by Murray Bailey

J What will happen in the travel business if the referendum on the United Kingdom staying in the European Union goes the wrong way and the UK leavesR We make some observations on what that might mean ndash on access between the UK and the EU and vice versa for travellers on Easy-Jet Ryanair other airlines and othersR We add that although there are some lawsrules ndash such as flights within the EU flights from EU markets to the US etc ndash that does not mean that everything will automatically follow those rules There is always room for negotia-tion and room for horse-trading ndash ldquoIrsquoll do this if you do thatrdquo There is also a lot that is not lsquowrittenrsquo ndash because no country has ever exited from the EUR We also note that the UK-leav-ers assume almost promise that they will get a better deal with the EU than they have now We think they will be wrong almost entirely and some of our points are shown below R We also think that the EU will not do the UK any favours ndash if only because it does not want other countries to decide they would be better outside the EUR Also whatever those in the UK think the United Kingdom is a small countrymarket when com-pared to a giant EU National pride is not enough to ensure economic well-beingR Access to-and-from the UK We think for travellers this would be easier because ironically the UK-outside-EU will probably have to follow Schengen free-movement rules We base this on the belief that if the UK wants a trade pact with the EU ndash which is likely ndash it will have to accept certain rules in exchangeR Non-EU Norway and Switzer-land (plus Iceland and Liechten-stein) already do this ndash accept Schengen immigration rules in part-exchange for trade access to

the European UnionR Ironically the UK-leavers are using unwanted immigration from the EU into the UK as one of their reasons to exit Unless the post-exit government is ready to lose a big part of the UKrsquos export market thus damage the economy it will have to accept Schengen or a Schengen-fudgeR A Schengen-like deal on immi-gration would likely mean many more visitors for the UK from the worldrsquos biggest (or second-biggest depending on how you count) out-bound market ndash ChinaR At present travellers from China need one visa to visit 26 countries in Europe (plus three microstates) and a second visa to visit just the UK Unsurprisingly many do not bother with a UK visa and so the UK loses outR We estimate that with Schengen the UKrsquos visitor count from China would double in 15 months treble in 24 monthsR easyJet As a UK airline there is a fair chance it will lose its rights to fly within the EU or at least some of them and from EU mar-kets to non-EU That could mean shut down for its Geneva base for instance R Switzerland could allow easyJet to continue operating there (ac-cording to EU laws) but the EU might not let EJ ndash as a non-EU airline ndash fly into EU airports from GenevaR And likewise those EJ routes such as Italy-Malta France-Ger-many France-Morocco might be stopped If that is bad the possible outcome for Ryanair could be good for easyJetR Ryanair As an EU-based airline Irelandrsquos Ryanair would seem to be in a strong position It could even take up many of those routes and bases ndash such as Geneva ndash that easy-Jet might be forced to stop

R But Ryanair has a big operation in the United Kingdom flying to many EU areas from its 16 UK bases If the EU stops these Ry-anair could lose 20 of its traffic overnight ndash and travellers would lose access to the airlinersquos low fares (It has a 16 share in the UK ndash between the top three Ryanair easyJet and British Airways)R Just as Ryanair might be able to take over EJrsquos EU routes and hubs then EJ might be able to take over Ryanairrsquos UK-based routes into the EU ndash a giant boost for easyJetR Other airlines IAG (compris-ing Aer Lingus British Airways Iberia and Vueling) might need to make some adjustments but with a UK-based airline BA as well as EU-based Aer Lingus Iberia Vueling it should not have difficul-ty For instance ownership of its Open Skies (an airline despite that strange name) operation Paris-US could be switched to one of its EU-based airlinesR Norwegian Trouble Even though a non-EU airline as noted above it is included in some EU agreements One is aviation Nor-way as a member of the European Economic Area participates in many EU agreements including free movement (although it pays a fee for that free movement) of labour and goods The USEU aviation agreement specifically included Norway This sometimes has surprising results ndash for in-stance Norwegian flies from the US to Francersquos Caribbean colonies of Guadeloupe and MartiniqueR But almost certainly the US would take this opportunity to try again to stop Norwegianrsquos opera-tions from the UK to the USR Others We do not think opera-tions such as Eurostar would be af-fected although given the attitude of Francersquos anti-world unions this is possible But some less-promi-nent operations (such as Francersquos state-owned rail company SNCFrsquos intra-UK operations) might be threatened

An extract from a report in the April issue of the France-based Travel Business Analyst newsletter

Brexit Flying out of the window

8

VallettaJ Last year 75524 foreign students attended English language courses in Malta a drop of 26 over 2014rsquos 77550 the National Statistics Of-fice reportsR The majority of students were Italian (238) German (137) and French (101)R Together these three national-ities accounted for 476 of total studentsrsquo arrivals (see Foreign stu-dentsrsquo arrivals 2015)R The largest number of language students were 15 years old or younger ndash these totalled 21247 and accounted for 281 of studentsrsquo arrivals up 231 over 2014R Students aged 50 and over were in the minority with just 4486 slightly up from 4252 the previous year (see Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015)

Foreign studentsrsquo arrivals 2015

Country Females Males Totals1 share Austria 1920 1831 3751 497Belgium 470 294 764 101Brazil 1479 867 2347 311Colombia 458 281 739 098Czech Republic 2228 922 3151 417France 4508 3149 7657 1014Germany 5976 4388 10364 1372Hungary 403 296 699 093Italy 9931 8023 17956 2378Japan 1231 362 1593 211Libya 357 812 1170 155Netherlands 779 307 1086 144Poland 1729 1020 2749 364Russia 3464 2254 5720 757Slovakia 411 252 663 088Spain 1930 1339 3269 433Switzerland 1376 1044 2420 320Turkey 891 1399 2290 303Ukraine 381 268 649 086Others2 3912 2574 6487 859 Totals 43834 31682 75524 10000

1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Includes students whose nationality is not known

Language students play truant as 2015 arrivals dip

Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015

Age Females Males Totals1

-15 12261 8985 2124716-17 8534 6162 1469718-25 9284 7231 1651826-35 5642 4112 975736-49 4979 3283 826250+ 2793 1693 4486Age not known 341 216 557 Totals 43834 31682 75524

1 Includes students whose sex is not known

R Females outnumbered males and accounted for 58 of the entire student populationR July was the busiest month for English language schools with 15812 arrivals or 209 of the annual total This was followed by August and June with 165 and 113 per cent of total arrivals respective-ly A similar pattern was also noted in 2014R The most popular course offered in 2015 by these specialist schools was not surprisingly General Eng-lish This course alone accounted for 53811 students (713)R This was followed by the Inten-

sive English course with 152 of total studentsR Foreign students attending Eng-lish language courses comprised 42 of the total number of tourists who travelled to Malta in 2015 In July 206626 foreigners visited Malta of these 77 were English language studentsR The majority of students (298) resided with a host family an in-crease of 25 points over 2014 (see Studentsrsquo accommodation usage 2015)R Accommodation in hotels was chosen by 14530 students an in-crease of 34 over 2014R Collectively foreign students enrolled in schools for English language spent 238481 weeks in Malta The average length of stay per student was 32 weeks ndash the same as in 2014R With an average of 159 weeks students from Colombia recorded the highest average length of stay These were followed by Libyan and Turkish students with an average stay of 119 and 78 weeks respec-tivelyR In 2015 the teaching staff at

English language schools num-bered 1444 and most were fe-malesR Of these most (444) were aged between 18 and 24 R Female teaching personnel com-prised 693 of the total teaching staff

Studentsrsquo accommodationusage 2015

Accommodation Females Males Totals1

Hotel 8444 6084 14530 5 Star 146 133 279 4 Star 3584 2401 5986 3 Star 4714 3550 8265Other collective accommodation2 6066 4114 10181Host families 13555 8977 22532Self-catering 5556 4209 9765Others3 10213 8298 18516 Totals 43834 31682 75524 1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Guest houses hostels and private homes3 Includes accommodation not provided by the school

99

Data bank

Comments on tables

J All raw data in Data bank and elsewhere in Island Travel Trader are sourced from the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) Malta International Airport (MIA) the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) the Ministry for Finance and the National Statistics Office (NSO) - unless otherwise creditedJ NSO data may differ for some months due to rounding see Arrivals by genderJ All statistics are based on tourist arrivals that is they exclude cruise passengers that overnight in Malta see Aggregate international arrivals

International arrivals 2016

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Austria 2333 2333 083Belgium 1932 1932 069France 3772 5497 6444 15713 558Germany 7895 7729 11346 26969 959Ireland 2571 2571 091Italy 17470 14531 18979 50980 1812Libya 176 176 006Netherlands 2097 2097 075Nordic region 6984 6984 248Russia 832 832 030Spain 3028 3028 108Switzerland 1340 1340 048UK 23241 26800 36993 87034 3094US 1872 1872 067Others 32439 26449 18590 77478 2754 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 151922 177204 183764 206627 246485 192550 196692 113042 72569 1791422 Difference 10537 6489 13747

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

Aggregate international arrivals 2016

Arrivals Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Tourists 84817 81005 115519 281341 9964Cruise pax overnighting 622 381 0 1003 036 Totals 85439 81386 115519 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 282344 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 153564 177896 187616 207542 248284 194189 199937 115105 72568 1807268 Dfference 11159 6870 13748

Mode of travel 2016

Mode Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Air 82214 78338 112143 272695 9693Sea 2603 2667 3376 8646 307 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

1010

Data bank

Seasonal arrivals pattern

Season 2015 2016 Winter Arrivals 334407 165822 1867 5894(Jan Feb Nov Dec) Shoulder Arrivals 811353 115519 4529 4106(Mar Apr May Jun Oct) Summer Arrivals 645662 3604 (Jul Aug Sep) Totals 1791422 281341 10000 10000

Arrivals by gender 2016

Official Females Males Calculated tourist females males tourist arrivals arrivals Jan 84817 36711 4328 48106 5672 84817Feb 81005 37158 4587 43847 5413 81005Mar 115519 56660 4905 58858 5095 115518Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals 281341 130529 150811 281340

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016

By age Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share 0-24 9592 11076 18721 39389 140025-44 31816 24338 34698 90852 322945-64 29498 30604 40586 100688 357965+ 13911 14987 21514 50412 1792 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

Monthly arrivals comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr Country 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Austria 1305 1962 2333 1891 3332Belgium 1167 1915 1932 091 3843France 5074 3772 -2566 4983 5497 1031 6908 6444 -672 11944Germany 7456 7895 589 7120 7729 855 10037 11346 1304 14920Ireland 1782 1902 2571 3519 3189Italy 13695 17470 2756 13547 14531 726 19492 18979 -263 23755Libya 474 176 -6287 766Netherlands 1427 1665 2097 2595 3212Nordic region 2464 2918 3567 6984 9580 9400Russia 543 832 5327 982Spain 1423 3028 11277 4862Switzerland 1422 1774 1340 -2449 3134UK 21306 23241 908 24161 26800 1092 31950 36993 1578 44619US 1203 1371 1872 3656 1616Others 15979 32439 10301 21787 26449 2140 16788 18590 1074 22348 Totals 74280 84817 1419 74516 81005 871 101771 115518 1351 151922

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

1111

Data bank

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016(continued)

Purpose of visit Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Business 9492 9291 10292 29075 1033Holiday 71844 66137 94328 232309 8257Other 3481 5577 10899 19957 709 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000 Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share FIT 51040 45894 62214 159148 5657Package 33777 35111 53304 122192 4343 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 Expenditure Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals FIT 20059 17537 24458 62054 of which Accommodation 9813 8922 11980 30715 Airsea fares 10247 8616 12478 31341 Package 17919 17742 30416 66077 Other 27283 22558 31382 81223 Totals(euro000s) 65261 57837 86256 209354 Length of stay Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share(nights)

1-3 19624 21140 24257 65021 23114-6 24189 22236 36672 83097 29547+ 41004 37630 54589 133223 4735 Average LoS 770 720 690 727 10000 Visit frequency Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec First visit 54454 53959 80092 Repeat visit 30363 27046 35427 of which Once a year 19921 18792 23513 More than once a year 10442 8254 11914

Accommodation occupancy and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 56936 63151 1092 59018 63269 720 81559 88108 803 113760 Private 17345 21666 2491 15498 17736 1444 20211 27411 3562 38164 Totals 74281 84817 1418 74516 81005 871 101770 115519 1351 151924

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

5

renovation programmeR Works included the refurbish-ment of rooms including new bathrooms equipped with rain shower new beds upholstery and light control switchesR All rooms and suite catego-ries have now been installed with a state-of-the-art noiseless air conditioning system which greatly reduces consumption and there-by minimizes the hotelrsquos carbon footprint

Azure Ultra charter luxury on the high sea

VittoriosaJ Fancy a day of luxury and pam-pering on the high sea You can have it for just euro4700 If thatrsquos too pricey therersquos the more lsquocompet-itiversquo option at euro1500 on a 15m yacht appropriately named Miss MoneypennyR And if yoursquore on a tight budget you could choose the brunch and bubbly experience for euro750 This will buy you a half-day aboard the same Miss MoneypennyR On the other hand if money is no object and you have euro27500 to spare you could charter the 20m Amore Mio for a weekR All of these goodies are availa-ble from Azure Ultra Billing itself ldquoMaltarsquos premier luxury yacht char-ter provider Azure Ultra prides itself on its upscale service which sets it apart in the local charter scenerdquo R Azure Ultra based at Vittoriosarsquos

marina started its luxury yacht charter operation last year and launched the 2016 season in early April itrsquos a member of the Azure Group that manages two timeshare operations at the Radisson Blu Resort amp Spa Golden SandsR Azure Ultrarsquos fleet is made up of three Sunseeker yachts Miss Moneypenny the 186m Donrsquot Ask and the most recent addition Mio Amore ndash that has three guest cabins sleeping six plus one for the crewR Both Amore Mio and Donrsquot Ask have international licenses meaning they can be chartered for travel abroad And all charter rates include a captain a stewardess and insurance fees Day charters include a light lunch with drinks and sufficient fuel for 56km Addi-tionally the yachts are equipped to offer water sportsR The yachts may be chartered for a day overnight three nights or per week or for bespoke programmes to suit all requirementsR Like its sister company Azure Ultra also offers fractional yacht ownership ndash fancy speak for time-shareR A lsquofractionrsquo of a yacht is price tagged at euro63000 berthing is in-cluded in the price but yoursquoll have to fork out another euro850 a year in running costsR Azure Ultrarsquos ldquorealistically af-fordable optionshellipplace the high life on board a luxury Sunseeker within easy reach of aspiring yacht owners while guaranteeing a splendid hassle-free time at seardquo

Malta ndash like flying into a Picasso painting

LuqaJ Malta International Airport has topped a global poll of the worldrsquos most scenic landingsR Conducted by the private jet booking service PrivateFly the company asked its clients for their most scenic airport approaches in its annual survey with the most votes this year going to MIA (The poll was carried out in February and March and more than 7500 people voted A total of 115 air-ports were nominated)

Continued from page 4

Azure Ultra realistically affordable luxury afloat

R One voter says ldquoLanding on this gem in the Mediterranean Sea is not to be missed The islands of Malta and Gozo fit into your windowthe sea the blue skies the landscape the greenery the cities the temples and all the colours that this beautiful island has to offer Beats any landing by farrdquoR Adam Twidell CEO of Pri-vateFly and an experienced pilot comments ldquoFlying into Malta is a truly special experience ndash itrsquos a tiny island landing that packs a big punch There is so much to take in Without being hectic the landscape changes from coast to farmland to the historic city of Val-letta Itrsquos like flying into a Picasso paintingrdquoR MIArsquos CEO Alan Borg adds ldquoWe are truly flattered by this award and the feedback Malta International Airport received in this poll which strengthens our

Top 10 scenic airports

1 Malta International Airport Malta2 Nice Cote Drsquo Azur Airport France3 Queenstown Airport New Zealand4 Barra Airport Scotland UK5 Juancho E Yrausquin Airport Saba Dutch Caribbean6 Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport Canada7 Donegal Airport Ireland8 Princess Juliana International Airport St Maarten Dutch Caribbean9 Los Angeles International Airport US10 London City Airport UK

Continued on column 1 page 6

6

belief that Malta enthrals visitors from their first glimpse and offers a unique experience year-round We hope that topping PrivateFlyrsquos poll will boost our ongoing efforts to entice guests who have not yet experienced our islands to discover our rich history culture hospitality and underwater world first handrdquo

Cruise traffic up 91 in Q1

VallettaJ Cruise liner passenger traffic in the first three months of the year was up 907 over the correspond-ing quarter of last year A total of 39375 passengers visited the islands in Q1 up from 20653 last yearR In Q1 17 cruise liners called at the Grand Harbour eight more than last year (see Cruise ship traf-fic 2016 on page 13)R As expected the majority of cruise line passengers were EU nationals ndash 659R The most dramatic statistic relates to Maltese nationals In Q1 of 2015 just one Maltese went on a cruise this time round 72 did ndash an increase of 7100 Americans were the largest number of non-Eu-ropean passengersR On a gender basis females made up 533 of the total whilst the biggest share of passengers were in the 60-79 age bracket

Continued from page 5

IstanbulJ To celebrate UEFA EURO 2016 this summer Turkish Airlines has un-veiled an A330-300 painted in the competitionrsquos liveryR In mid-April the aircraft made its maiden flight to Paris the location of this yearrsquos final on 10 July and is ldquojust one component of Turkish Airlinesrsquo drive to excite fans ahead of this yearrsquos tournamentrdquoR The livery was created by UEFA and Turkish Airlines as part of the air-linersquos partnership with the competition and role as official airline partner of Euro 2016 The sponsorship will also see the airline announcing a series of ticket giveaway competitions unique EURO 2016 airport ldquoexperiencesrdquo for passengers and a series of fan zones throughout the host French cities once matches get underway on 10 June R The Airbus wrapped in the UEFA EURO 2016 colours will fly to a se-lected number of destinations across TArsquos network

Turkish Airlines unwraps UEFA Airbus livery

Air Navia lsquolinkingrsquo Aalborg and Malta

AalborgJ Air Navia is a new Danish company that calls itself a low cost carrier but it does not have any aircraftR It is understood it was trying to charter a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 from Danish Air Transport but so far it hasnrsquotR The company also hopes to obtain an air operatorrsquos certificate (AOC) within the next three years

chief commercial officer Mathias Madsen is reported to have saidR Set up last November Air Navia is offering flights from Aalborg to Malta Crete Rhodes Corfu Gran Canaria Tenerife Fuerteventura Varna (Bulgaria) and Gazipasa (Turkey)R Flights to Malta actually oper-ated by SAS are on Sundays from March to October and cost around euro705 for the round tripR Frederik Holmstrom Air Naviarsquos marketing coordinator tells Island Travel Trader the lsquoairlinersquo has ldquotak-en between 20-40 seats of our own on each routerdquoR In lsquoolden timesrsquo operations such as these were known as airline con-solidators Today itrsquos referred to as a lsquovirtual airlinersquo

Space rental set to drive sharing economy

BasingstokeJ New data from UK-based Juni-per Research has found that shared space providers including Airbnb and WeWork are set to see plat-form revenues surpass those taken

by ride-sharing providers Uber and Lyft by 2019R Juniperrsquos latest research ndash Shar-ing economy opportunities impacts and disruptors 2016-2020 ndash found that shared space platforms such as Airbnb are allowing users to rent rooms in residential properties at rates often undercutting traditional hotel rooms disrupting the leisure and tourism industry significantlyR With these providers taking a proportion of reservation and booking fees revenues are set to grow from an estimated euro205bn in 2015 to euro54bn globally by 2019R The research discovered that the ease of use provided by Airbnb in terms of no-nonsense booking as well as the financial rewards avail-able to registered property owners will see a surge in both listings and bookingsR Forecast growth in the shared space industry will hold signifi-cant concern for the hotel indus-try where in many cases shared space providers are not bound by the same rules and regulations as traditional establishments leading

Continued on column 1 page 14

7

by Murray Bailey

J What will happen in the travel business if the referendum on the United Kingdom staying in the European Union goes the wrong way and the UK leavesR We make some observations on what that might mean ndash on access between the UK and the EU and vice versa for travellers on Easy-Jet Ryanair other airlines and othersR We add that although there are some lawsrules ndash such as flights within the EU flights from EU markets to the US etc ndash that does not mean that everything will automatically follow those rules There is always room for negotia-tion and room for horse-trading ndash ldquoIrsquoll do this if you do thatrdquo There is also a lot that is not lsquowrittenrsquo ndash because no country has ever exited from the EUR We also note that the UK-leav-ers assume almost promise that they will get a better deal with the EU than they have now We think they will be wrong almost entirely and some of our points are shown below R We also think that the EU will not do the UK any favours ndash if only because it does not want other countries to decide they would be better outside the EUR Also whatever those in the UK think the United Kingdom is a small countrymarket when com-pared to a giant EU National pride is not enough to ensure economic well-beingR Access to-and-from the UK We think for travellers this would be easier because ironically the UK-outside-EU will probably have to follow Schengen free-movement rules We base this on the belief that if the UK wants a trade pact with the EU ndash which is likely ndash it will have to accept certain rules in exchangeR Non-EU Norway and Switzer-land (plus Iceland and Liechten-stein) already do this ndash accept Schengen immigration rules in part-exchange for trade access to

the European UnionR Ironically the UK-leavers are using unwanted immigration from the EU into the UK as one of their reasons to exit Unless the post-exit government is ready to lose a big part of the UKrsquos export market thus damage the economy it will have to accept Schengen or a Schengen-fudgeR A Schengen-like deal on immi-gration would likely mean many more visitors for the UK from the worldrsquos biggest (or second-biggest depending on how you count) out-bound market ndash ChinaR At present travellers from China need one visa to visit 26 countries in Europe (plus three microstates) and a second visa to visit just the UK Unsurprisingly many do not bother with a UK visa and so the UK loses outR We estimate that with Schengen the UKrsquos visitor count from China would double in 15 months treble in 24 monthsR easyJet As a UK airline there is a fair chance it will lose its rights to fly within the EU or at least some of them and from EU mar-kets to non-EU That could mean shut down for its Geneva base for instance R Switzerland could allow easyJet to continue operating there (ac-cording to EU laws) but the EU might not let EJ ndash as a non-EU airline ndash fly into EU airports from GenevaR And likewise those EJ routes such as Italy-Malta France-Ger-many France-Morocco might be stopped If that is bad the possible outcome for Ryanair could be good for easyJetR Ryanair As an EU-based airline Irelandrsquos Ryanair would seem to be in a strong position It could even take up many of those routes and bases ndash such as Geneva ndash that easy-Jet might be forced to stop

R But Ryanair has a big operation in the United Kingdom flying to many EU areas from its 16 UK bases If the EU stops these Ry-anair could lose 20 of its traffic overnight ndash and travellers would lose access to the airlinersquos low fares (It has a 16 share in the UK ndash between the top three Ryanair easyJet and British Airways)R Just as Ryanair might be able to take over EJrsquos EU routes and hubs then EJ might be able to take over Ryanairrsquos UK-based routes into the EU ndash a giant boost for easyJetR Other airlines IAG (compris-ing Aer Lingus British Airways Iberia and Vueling) might need to make some adjustments but with a UK-based airline BA as well as EU-based Aer Lingus Iberia Vueling it should not have difficul-ty For instance ownership of its Open Skies (an airline despite that strange name) operation Paris-US could be switched to one of its EU-based airlinesR Norwegian Trouble Even though a non-EU airline as noted above it is included in some EU agreements One is aviation Nor-way as a member of the European Economic Area participates in many EU agreements including free movement (although it pays a fee for that free movement) of labour and goods The USEU aviation agreement specifically included Norway This sometimes has surprising results ndash for in-stance Norwegian flies from the US to Francersquos Caribbean colonies of Guadeloupe and MartiniqueR But almost certainly the US would take this opportunity to try again to stop Norwegianrsquos opera-tions from the UK to the USR Others We do not think opera-tions such as Eurostar would be af-fected although given the attitude of Francersquos anti-world unions this is possible But some less-promi-nent operations (such as Francersquos state-owned rail company SNCFrsquos intra-UK operations) might be threatened

An extract from a report in the April issue of the France-based Travel Business Analyst newsletter

Brexit Flying out of the window

8

VallettaJ Last year 75524 foreign students attended English language courses in Malta a drop of 26 over 2014rsquos 77550 the National Statistics Of-fice reportsR The majority of students were Italian (238) German (137) and French (101)R Together these three national-ities accounted for 476 of total studentsrsquo arrivals (see Foreign stu-dentsrsquo arrivals 2015)R The largest number of language students were 15 years old or younger ndash these totalled 21247 and accounted for 281 of studentsrsquo arrivals up 231 over 2014R Students aged 50 and over were in the minority with just 4486 slightly up from 4252 the previous year (see Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015)

Foreign studentsrsquo arrivals 2015

Country Females Males Totals1 share Austria 1920 1831 3751 497Belgium 470 294 764 101Brazil 1479 867 2347 311Colombia 458 281 739 098Czech Republic 2228 922 3151 417France 4508 3149 7657 1014Germany 5976 4388 10364 1372Hungary 403 296 699 093Italy 9931 8023 17956 2378Japan 1231 362 1593 211Libya 357 812 1170 155Netherlands 779 307 1086 144Poland 1729 1020 2749 364Russia 3464 2254 5720 757Slovakia 411 252 663 088Spain 1930 1339 3269 433Switzerland 1376 1044 2420 320Turkey 891 1399 2290 303Ukraine 381 268 649 086Others2 3912 2574 6487 859 Totals 43834 31682 75524 10000

1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Includes students whose nationality is not known

Language students play truant as 2015 arrivals dip

Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015

Age Females Males Totals1

-15 12261 8985 2124716-17 8534 6162 1469718-25 9284 7231 1651826-35 5642 4112 975736-49 4979 3283 826250+ 2793 1693 4486Age not known 341 216 557 Totals 43834 31682 75524

1 Includes students whose sex is not known

R Females outnumbered males and accounted for 58 of the entire student populationR July was the busiest month for English language schools with 15812 arrivals or 209 of the annual total This was followed by August and June with 165 and 113 per cent of total arrivals respective-ly A similar pattern was also noted in 2014R The most popular course offered in 2015 by these specialist schools was not surprisingly General Eng-lish This course alone accounted for 53811 students (713)R This was followed by the Inten-

sive English course with 152 of total studentsR Foreign students attending Eng-lish language courses comprised 42 of the total number of tourists who travelled to Malta in 2015 In July 206626 foreigners visited Malta of these 77 were English language studentsR The majority of students (298) resided with a host family an in-crease of 25 points over 2014 (see Studentsrsquo accommodation usage 2015)R Accommodation in hotels was chosen by 14530 students an in-crease of 34 over 2014R Collectively foreign students enrolled in schools for English language spent 238481 weeks in Malta The average length of stay per student was 32 weeks ndash the same as in 2014R With an average of 159 weeks students from Colombia recorded the highest average length of stay These were followed by Libyan and Turkish students with an average stay of 119 and 78 weeks respec-tivelyR In 2015 the teaching staff at

English language schools num-bered 1444 and most were fe-malesR Of these most (444) were aged between 18 and 24 R Female teaching personnel com-prised 693 of the total teaching staff

Studentsrsquo accommodationusage 2015

Accommodation Females Males Totals1

Hotel 8444 6084 14530 5 Star 146 133 279 4 Star 3584 2401 5986 3 Star 4714 3550 8265Other collective accommodation2 6066 4114 10181Host families 13555 8977 22532Self-catering 5556 4209 9765Others3 10213 8298 18516 Totals 43834 31682 75524 1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Guest houses hostels and private homes3 Includes accommodation not provided by the school

99

Data bank

Comments on tables

J All raw data in Data bank and elsewhere in Island Travel Trader are sourced from the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) Malta International Airport (MIA) the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) the Ministry for Finance and the National Statistics Office (NSO) - unless otherwise creditedJ NSO data may differ for some months due to rounding see Arrivals by genderJ All statistics are based on tourist arrivals that is they exclude cruise passengers that overnight in Malta see Aggregate international arrivals

International arrivals 2016

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Austria 2333 2333 083Belgium 1932 1932 069France 3772 5497 6444 15713 558Germany 7895 7729 11346 26969 959Ireland 2571 2571 091Italy 17470 14531 18979 50980 1812Libya 176 176 006Netherlands 2097 2097 075Nordic region 6984 6984 248Russia 832 832 030Spain 3028 3028 108Switzerland 1340 1340 048UK 23241 26800 36993 87034 3094US 1872 1872 067Others 32439 26449 18590 77478 2754 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 151922 177204 183764 206627 246485 192550 196692 113042 72569 1791422 Difference 10537 6489 13747

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

Aggregate international arrivals 2016

Arrivals Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Tourists 84817 81005 115519 281341 9964Cruise pax overnighting 622 381 0 1003 036 Totals 85439 81386 115519 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 282344 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 153564 177896 187616 207542 248284 194189 199937 115105 72568 1807268 Dfference 11159 6870 13748

Mode of travel 2016

Mode Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Air 82214 78338 112143 272695 9693Sea 2603 2667 3376 8646 307 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

1010

Data bank

Seasonal arrivals pattern

Season 2015 2016 Winter Arrivals 334407 165822 1867 5894(Jan Feb Nov Dec) Shoulder Arrivals 811353 115519 4529 4106(Mar Apr May Jun Oct) Summer Arrivals 645662 3604 (Jul Aug Sep) Totals 1791422 281341 10000 10000

Arrivals by gender 2016

Official Females Males Calculated tourist females males tourist arrivals arrivals Jan 84817 36711 4328 48106 5672 84817Feb 81005 37158 4587 43847 5413 81005Mar 115519 56660 4905 58858 5095 115518Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals 281341 130529 150811 281340

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016

By age Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share 0-24 9592 11076 18721 39389 140025-44 31816 24338 34698 90852 322945-64 29498 30604 40586 100688 357965+ 13911 14987 21514 50412 1792 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

Monthly arrivals comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr Country 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Austria 1305 1962 2333 1891 3332Belgium 1167 1915 1932 091 3843France 5074 3772 -2566 4983 5497 1031 6908 6444 -672 11944Germany 7456 7895 589 7120 7729 855 10037 11346 1304 14920Ireland 1782 1902 2571 3519 3189Italy 13695 17470 2756 13547 14531 726 19492 18979 -263 23755Libya 474 176 -6287 766Netherlands 1427 1665 2097 2595 3212Nordic region 2464 2918 3567 6984 9580 9400Russia 543 832 5327 982Spain 1423 3028 11277 4862Switzerland 1422 1774 1340 -2449 3134UK 21306 23241 908 24161 26800 1092 31950 36993 1578 44619US 1203 1371 1872 3656 1616Others 15979 32439 10301 21787 26449 2140 16788 18590 1074 22348 Totals 74280 84817 1419 74516 81005 871 101771 115518 1351 151922

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

1111

Data bank

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016(continued)

Purpose of visit Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Business 9492 9291 10292 29075 1033Holiday 71844 66137 94328 232309 8257Other 3481 5577 10899 19957 709 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000 Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share FIT 51040 45894 62214 159148 5657Package 33777 35111 53304 122192 4343 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 Expenditure Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals FIT 20059 17537 24458 62054 of which Accommodation 9813 8922 11980 30715 Airsea fares 10247 8616 12478 31341 Package 17919 17742 30416 66077 Other 27283 22558 31382 81223 Totals(euro000s) 65261 57837 86256 209354 Length of stay Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share(nights)

1-3 19624 21140 24257 65021 23114-6 24189 22236 36672 83097 29547+ 41004 37630 54589 133223 4735 Average LoS 770 720 690 727 10000 Visit frequency Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec First visit 54454 53959 80092 Repeat visit 30363 27046 35427 of which Once a year 19921 18792 23513 More than once a year 10442 8254 11914

Accommodation occupancy and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 56936 63151 1092 59018 63269 720 81559 88108 803 113760 Private 17345 21666 2491 15498 17736 1444 20211 27411 3562 38164 Totals 74281 84817 1418 74516 81005 871 101770 115519 1351 151924

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

6

belief that Malta enthrals visitors from their first glimpse and offers a unique experience year-round We hope that topping PrivateFlyrsquos poll will boost our ongoing efforts to entice guests who have not yet experienced our islands to discover our rich history culture hospitality and underwater world first handrdquo

Cruise traffic up 91 in Q1

VallettaJ Cruise liner passenger traffic in the first three months of the year was up 907 over the correspond-ing quarter of last year A total of 39375 passengers visited the islands in Q1 up from 20653 last yearR In Q1 17 cruise liners called at the Grand Harbour eight more than last year (see Cruise ship traf-fic 2016 on page 13)R As expected the majority of cruise line passengers were EU nationals ndash 659R The most dramatic statistic relates to Maltese nationals In Q1 of 2015 just one Maltese went on a cruise this time round 72 did ndash an increase of 7100 Americans were the largest number of non-Eu-ropean passengersR On a gender basis females made up 533 of the total whilst the biggest share of passengers were in the 60-79 age bracket

Continued from page 5

IstanbulJ To celebrate UEFA EURO 2016 this summer Turkish Airlines has un-veiled an A330-300 painted in the competitionrsquos liveryR In mid-April the aircraft made its maiden flight to Paris the location of this yearrsquos final on 10 July and is ldquojust one component of Turkish Airlinesrsquo drive to excite fans ahead of this yearrsquos tournamentrdquoR The livery was created by UEFA and Turkish Airlines as part of the air-linersquos partnership with the competition and role as official airline partner of Euro 2016 The sponsorship will also see the airline announcing a series of ticket giveaway competitions unique EURO 2016 airport ldquoexperiencesrdquo for passengers and a series of fan zones throughout the host French cities once matches get underway on 10 June R The Airbus wrapped in the UEFA EURO 2016 colours will fly to a se-lected number of destinations across TArsquos network

Turkish Airlines unwraps UEFA Airbus livery

Air Navia lsquolinkingrsquo Aalborg and Malta

AalborgJ Air Navia is a new Danish company that calls itself a low cost carrier but it does not have any aircraftR It is understood it was trying to charter a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 from Danish Air Transport but so far it hasnrsquotR The company also hopes to obtain an air operatorrsquos certificate (AOC) within the next three years

chief commercial officer Mathias Madsen is reported to have saidR Set up last November Air Navia is offering flights from Aalborg to Malta Crete Rhodes Corfu Gran Canaria Tenerife Fuerteventura Varna (Bulgaria) and Gazipasa (Turkey)R Flights to Malta actually oper-ated by SAS are on Sundays from March to October and cost around euro705 for the round tripR Frederik Holmstrom Air Naviarsquos marketing coordinator tells Island Travel Trader the lsquoairlinersquo has ldquotak-en between 20-40 seats of our own on each routerdquoR In lsquoolden timesrsquo operations such as these were known as airline con-solidators Today itrsquos referred to as a lsquovirtual airlinersquo

Space rental set to drive sharing economy

BasingstokeJ New data from UK-based Juni-per Research has found that shared space providers including Airbnb and WeWork are set to see plat-form revenues surpass those taken

by ride-sharing providers Uber and Lyft by 2019R Juniperrsquos latest research ndash Shar-ing economy opportunities impacts and disruptors 2016-2020 ndash found that shared space platforms such as Airbnb are allowing users to rent rooms in residential properties at rates often undercutting traditional hotel rooms disrupting the leisure and tourism industry significantlyR With these providers taking a proportion of reservation and booking fees revenues are set to grow from an estimated euro205bn in 2015 to euro54bn globally by 2019R The research discovered that the ease of use provided by Airbnb in terms of no-nonsense booking as well as the financial rewards avail-able to registered property owners will see a surge in both listings and bookingsR Forecast growth in the shared space industry will hold signifi-cant concern for the hotel indus-try where in many cases shared space providers are not bound by the same rules and regulations as traditional establishments leading

Continued on column 1 page 14

7

by Murray Bailey

J What will happen in the travel business if the referendum on the United Kingdom staying in the European Union goes the wrong way and the UK leavesR We make some observations on what that might mean ndash on access between the UK and the EU and vice versa for travellers on Easy-Jet Ryanair other airlines and othersR We add that although there are some lawsrules ndash such as flights within the EU flights from EU markets to the US etc ndash that does not mean that everything will automatically follow those rules There is always room for negotia-tion and room for horse-trading ndash ldquoIrsquoll do this if you do thatrdquo There is also a lot that is not lsquowrittenrsquo ndash because no country has ever exited from the EUR We also note that the UK-leav-ers assume almost promise that they will get a better deal with the EU than they have now We think they will be wrong almost entirely and some of our points are shown below R We also think that the EU will not do the UK any favours ndash if only because it does not want other countries to decide they would be better outside the EUR Also whatever those in the UK think the United Kingdom is a small countrymarket when com-pared to a giant EU National pride is not enough to ensure economic well-beingR Access to-and-from the UK We think for travellers this would be easier because ironically the UK-outside-EU will probably have to follow Schengen free-movement rules We base this on the belief that if the UK wants a trade pact with the EU ndash which is likely ndash it will have to accept certain rules in exchangeR Non-EU Norway and Switzer-land (plus Iceland and Liechten-stein) already do this ndash accept Schengen immigration rules in part-exchange for trade access to

the European UnionR Ironically the UK-leavers are using unwanted immigration from the EU into the UK as one of their reasons to exit Unless the post-exit government is ready to lose a big part of the UKrsquos export market thus damage the economy it will have to accept Schengen or a Schengen-fudgeR A Schengen-like deal on immi-gration would likely mean many more visitors for the UK from the worldrsquos biggest (or second-biggest depending on how you count) out-bound market ndash ChinaR At present travellers from China need one visa to visit 26 countries in Europe (plus three microstates) and a second visa to visit just the UK Unsurprisingly many do not bother with a UK visa and so the UK loses outR We estimate that with Schengen the UKrsquos visitor count from China would double in 15 months treble in 24 monthsR easyJet As a UK airline there is a fair chance it will lose its rights to fly within the EU or at least some of them and from EU mar-kets to non-EU That could mean shut down for its Geneva base for instance R Switzerland could allow easyJet to continue operating there (ac-cording to EU laws) but the EU might not let EJ ndash as a non-EU airline ndash fly into EU airports from GenevaR And likewise those EJ routes such as Italy-Malta France-Ger-many France-Morocco might be stopped If that is bad the possible outcome for Ryanair could be good for easyJetR Ryanair As an EU-based airline Irelandrsquos Ryanair would seem to be in a strong position It could even take up many of those routes and bases ndash such as Geneva ndash that easy-Jet might be forced to stop

R But Ryanair has a big operation in the United Kingdom flying to many EU areas from its 16 UK bases If the EU stops these Ry-anair could lose 20 of its traffic overnight ndash and travellers would lose access to the airlinersquos low fares (It has a 16 share in the UK ndash between the top three Ryanair easyJet and British Airways)R Just as Ryanair might be able to take over EJrsquos EU routes and hubs then EJ might be able to take over Ryanairrsquos UK-based routes into the EU ndash a giant boost for easyJetR Other airlines IAG (compris-ing Aer Lingus British Airways Iberia and Vueling) might need to make some adjustments but with a UK-based airline BA as well as EU-based Aer Lingus Iberia Vueling it should not have difficul-ty For instance ownership of its Open Skies (an airline despite that strange name) operation Paris-US could be switched to one of its EU-based airlinesR Norwegian Trouble Even though a non-EU airline as noted above it is included in some EU agreements One is aviation Nor-way as a member of the European Economic Area participates in many EU agreements including free movement (although it pays a fee for that free movement) of labour and goods The USEU aviation agreement specifically included Norway This sometimes has surprising results ndash for in-stance Norwegian flies from the US to Francersquos Caribbean colonies of Guadeloupe and MartiniqueR But almost certainly the US would take this opportunity to try again to stop Norwegianrsquos opera-tions from the UK to the USR Others We do not think opera-tions such as Eurostar would be af-fected although given the attitude of Francersquos anti-world unions this is possible But some less-promi-nent operations (such as Francersquos state-owned rail company SNCFrsquos intra-UK operations) might be threatened

An extract from a report in the April issue of the France-based Travel Business Analyst newsletter

Brexit Flying out of the window

8

VallettaJ Last year 75524 foreign students attended English language courses in Malta a drop of 26 over 2014rsquos 77550 the National Statistics Of-fice reportsR The majority of students were Italian (238) German (137) and French (101)R Together these three national-ities accounted for 476 of total studentsrsquo arrivals (see Foreign stu-dentsrsquo arrivals 2015)R The largest number of language students were 15 years old or younger ndash these totalled 21247 and accounted for 281 of studentsrsquo arrivals up 231 over 2014R Students aged 50 and over were in the minority with just 4486 slightly up from 4252 the previous year (see Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015)

Foreign studentsrsquo arrivals 2015

Country Females Males Totals1 share Austria 1920 1831 3751 497Belgium 470 294 764 101Brazil 1479 867 2347 311Colombia 458 281 739 098Czech Republic 2228 922 3151 417France 4508 3149 7657 1014Germany 5976 4388 10364 1372Hungary 403 296 699 093Italy 9931 8023 17956 2378Japan 1231 362 1593 211Libya 357 812 1170 155Netherlands 779 307 1086 144Poland 1729 1020 2749 364Russia 3464 2254 5720 757Slovakia 411 252 663 088Spain 1930 1339 3269 433Switzerland 1376 1044 2420 320Turkey 891 1399 2290 303Ukraine 381 268 649 086Others2 3912 2574 6487 859 Totals 43834 31682 75524 10000

1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Includes students whose nationality is not known

Language students play truant as 2015 arrivals dip

Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015

Age Females Males Totals1

-15 12261 8985 2124716-17 8534 6162 1469718-25 9284 7231 1651826-35 5642 4112 975736-49 4979 3283 826250+ 2793 1693 4486Age not known 341 216 557 Totals 43834 31682 75524

1 Includes students whose sex is not known

R Females outnumbered males and accounted for 58 of the entire student populationR July was the busiest month for English language schools with 15812 arrivals or 209 of the annual total This was followed by August and June with 165 and 113 per cent of total arrivals respective-ly A similar pattern was also noted in 2014R The most popular course offered in 2015 by these specialist schools was not surprisingly General Eng-lish This course alone accounted for 53811 students (713)R This was followed by the Inten-

sive English course with 152 of total studentsR Foreign students attending Eng-lish language courses comprised 42 of the total number of tourists who travelled to Malta in 2015 In July 206626 foreigners visited Malta of these 77 were English language studentsR The majority of students (298) resided with a host family an in-crease of 25 points over 2014 (see Studentsrsquo accommodation usage 2015)R Accommodation in hotels was chosen by 14530 students an in-crease of 34 over 2014R Collectively foreign students enrolled in schools for English language spent 238481 weeks in Malta The average length of stay per student was 32 weeks ndash the same as in 2014R With an average of 159 weeks students from Colombia recorded the highest average length of stay These were followed by Libyan and Turkish students with an average stay of 119 and 78 weeks respec-tivelyR In 2015 the teaching staff at

English language schools num-bered 1444 and most were fe-malesR Of these most (444) were aged between 18 and 24 R Female teaching personnel com-prised 693 of the total teaching staff

Studentsrsquo accommodationusage 2015

Accommodation Females Males Totals1

Hotel 8444 6084 14530 5 Star 146 133 279 4 Star 3584 2401 5986 3 Star 4714 3550 8265Other collective accommodation2 6066 4114 10181Host families 13555 8977 22532Self-catering 5556 4209 9765Others3 10213 8298 18516 Totals 43834 31682 75524 1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Guest houses hostels and private homes3 Includes accommodation not provided by the school

99

Data bank

Comments on tables

J All raw data in Data bank and elsewhere in Island Travel Trader are sourced from the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) Malta International Airport (MIA) the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) the Ministry for Finance and the National Statistics Office (NSO) - unless otherwise creditedJ NSO data may differ for some months due to rounding see Arrivals by genderJ All statistics are based on tourist arrivals that is they exclude cruise passengers that overnight in Malta see Aggregate international arrivals

International arrivals 2016

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Austria 2333 2333 083Belgium 1932 1932 069France 3772 5497 6444 15713 558Germany 7895 7729 11346 26969 959Ireland 2571 2571 091Italy 17470 14531 18979 50980 1812Libya 176 176 006Netherlands 2097 2097 075Nordic region 6984 6984 248Russia 832 832 030Spain 3028 3028 108Switzerland 1340 1340 048UK 23241 26800 36993 87034 3094US 1872 1872 067Others 32439 26449 18590 77478 2754 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 151922 177204 183764 206627 246485 192550 196692 113042 72569 1791422 Difference 10537 6489 13747

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

Aggregate international arrivals 2016

Arrivals Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Tourists 84817 81005 115519 281341 9964Cruise pax overnighting 622 381 0 1003 036 Totals 85439 81386 115519 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 282344 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 153564 177896 187616 207542 248284 194189 199937 115105 72568 1807268 Dfference 11159 6870 13748

Mode of travel 2016

Mode Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Air 82214 78338 112143 272695 9693Sea 2603 2667 3376 8646 307 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

1010

Data bank

Seasonal arrivals pattern

Season 2015 2016 Winter Arrivals 334407 165822 1867 5894(Jan Feb Nov Dec) Shoulder Arrivals 811353 115519 4529 4106(Mar Apr May Jun Oct) Summer Arrivals 645662 3604 (Jul Aug Sep) Totals 1791422 281341 10000 10000

Arrivals by gender 2016

Official Females Males Calculated tourist females males tourist arrivals arrivals Jan 84817 36711 4328 48106 5672 84817Feb 81005 37158 4587 43847 5413 81005Mar 115519 56660 4905 58858 5095 115518Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals 281341 130529 150811 281340

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016

By age Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share 0-24 9592 11076 18721 39389 140025-44 31816 24338 34698 90852 322945-64 29498 30604 40586 100688 357965+ 13911 14987 21514 50412 1792 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

Monthly arrivals comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr Country 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Austria 1305 1962 2333 1891 3332Belgium 1167 1915 1932 091 3843France 5074 3772 -2566 4983 5497 1031 6908 6444 -672 11944Germany 7456 7895 589 7120 7729 855 10037 11346 1304 14920Ireland 1782 1902 2571 3519 3189Italy 13695 17470 2756 13547 14531 726 19492 18979 -263 23755Libya 474 176 -6287 766Netherlands 1427 1665 2097 2595 3212Nordic region 2464 2918 3567 6984 9580 9400Russia 543 832 5327 982Spain 1423 3028 11277 4862Switzerland 1422 1774 1340 -2449 3134UK 21306 23241 908 24161 26800 1092 31950 36993 1578 44619US 1203 1371 1872 3656 1616Others 15979 32439 10301 21787 26449 2140 16788 18590 1074 22348 Totals 74280 84817 1419 74516 81005 871 101771 115518 1351 151922

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

1111

Data bank

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016(continued)

Purpose of visit Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Business 9492 9291 10292 29075 1033Holiday 71844 66137 94328 232309 8257Other 3481 5577 10899 19957 709 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000 Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share FIT 51040 45894 62214 159148 5657Package 33777 35111 53304 122192 4343 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 Expenditure Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals FIT 20059 17537 24458 62054 of which Accommodation 9813 8922 11980 30715 Airsea fares 10247 8616 12478 31341 Package 17919 17742 30416 66077 Other 27283 22558 31382 81223 Totals(euro000s) 65261 57837 86256 209354 Length of stay Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share(nights)

1-3 19624 21140 24257 65021 23114-6 24189 22236 36672 83097 29547+ 41004 37630 54589 133223 4735 Average LoS 770 720 690 727 10000 Visit frequency Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec First visit 54454 53959 80092 Repeat visit 30363 27046 35427 of which Once a year 19921 18792 23513 More than once a year 10442 8254 11914

Accommodation occupancy and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 56936 63151 1092 59018 63269 720 81559 88108 803 113760 Private 17345 21666 2491 15498 17736 1444 20211 27411 3562 38164 Totals 74281 84817 1418 74516 81005 871 101770 115519 1351 151924

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

7

by Murray Bailey

J What will happen in the travel business if the referendum on the United Kingdom staying in the European Union goes the wrong way and the UK leavesR We make some observations on what that might mean ndash on access between the UK and the EU and vice versa for travellers on Easy-Jet Ryanair other airlines and othersR We add that although there are some lawsrules ndash such as flights within the EU flights from EU markets to the US etc ndash that does not mean that everything will automatically follow those rules There is always room for negotia-tion and room for horse-trading ndash ldquoIrsquoll do this if you do thatrdquo There is also a lot that is not lsquowrittenrsquo ndash because no country has ever exited from the EUR We also note that the UK-leav-ers assume almost promise that they will get a better deal with the EU than they have now We think they will be wrong almost entirely and some of our points are shown below R We also think that the EU will not do the UK any favours ndash if only because it does not want other countries to decide they would be better outside the EUR Also whatever those in the UK think the United Kingdom is a small countrymarket when com-pared to a giant EU National pride is not enough to ensure economic well-beingR Access to-and-from the UK We think for travellers this would be easier because ironically the UK-outside-EU will probably have to follow Schengen free-movement rules We base this on the belief that if the UK wants a trade pact with the EU ndash which is likely ndash it will have to accept certain rules in exchangeR Non-EU Norway and Switzer-land (plus Iceland and Liechten-stein) already do this ndash accept Schengen immigration rules in part-exchange for trade access to

the European UnionR Ironically the UK-leavers are using unwanted immigration from the EU into the UK as one of their reasons to exit Unless the post-exit government is ready to lose a big part of the UKrsquos export market thus damage the economy it will have to accept Schengen or a Schengen-fudgeR A Schengen-like deal on immi-gration would likely mean many more visitors for the UK from the worldrsquos biggest (or second-biggest depending on how you count) out-bound market ndash ChinaR At present travellers from China need one visa to visit 26 countries in Europe (plus three microstates) and a second visa to visit just the UK Unsurprisingly many do not bother with a UK visa and so the UK loses outR We estimate that with Schengen the UKrsquos visitor count from China would double in 15 months treble in 24 monthsR easyJet As a UK airline there is a fair chance it will lose its rights to fly within the EU or at least some of them and from EU mar-kets to non-EU That could mean shut down for its Geneva base for instance R Switzerland could allow easyJet to continue operating there (ac-cording to EU laws) but the EU might not let EJ ndash as a non-EU airline ndash fly into EU airports from GenevaR And likewise those EJ routes such as Italy-Malta France-Ger-many France-Morocco might be stopped If that is bad the possible outcome for Ryanair could be good for easyJetR Ryanair As an EU-based airline Irelandrsquos Ryanair would seem to be in a strong position It could even take up many of those routes and bases ndash such as Geneva ndash that easy-Jet might be forced to stop

R But Ryanair has a big operation in the United Kingdom flying to many EU areas from its 16 UK bases If the EU stops these Ry-anair could lose 20 of its traffic overnight ndash and travellers would lose access to the airlinersquos low fares (It has a 16 share in the UK ndash between the top three Ryanair easyJet and British Airways)R Just as Ryanair might be able to take over EJrsquos EU routes and hubs then EJ might be able to take over Ryanairrsquos UK-based routes into the EU ndash a giant boost for easyJetR Other airlines IAG (compris-ing Aer Lingus British Airways Iberia and Vueling) might need to make some adjustments but with a UK-based airline BA as well as EU-based Aer Lingus Iberia Vueling it should not have difficul-ty For instance ownership of its Open Skies (an airline despite that strange name) operation Paris-US could be switched to one of its EU-based airlinesR Norwegian Trouble Even though a non-EU airline as noted above it is included in some EU agreements One is aviation Nor-way as a member of the European Economic Area participates in many EU agreements including free movement (although it pays a fee for that free movement) of labour and goods The USEU aviation agreement specifically included Norway This sometimes has surprising results ndash for in-stance Norwegian flies from the US to Francersquos Caribbean colonies of Guadeloupe and MartiniqueR But almost certainly the US would take this opportunity to try again to stop Norwegianrsquos opera-tions from the UK to the USR Others We do not think opera-tions such as Eurostar would be af-fected although given the attitude of Francersquos anti-world unions this is possible But some less-promi-nent operations (such as Francersquos state-owned rail company SNCFrsquos intra-UK operations) might be threatened

An extract from a report in the April issue of the France-based Travel Business Analyst newsletter

Brexit Flying out of the window

8

VallettaJ Last year 75524 foreign students attended English language courses in Malta a drop of 26 over 2014rsquos 77550 the National Statistics Of-fice reportsR The majority of students were Italian (238) German (137) and French (101)R Together these three national-ities accounted for 476 of total studentsrsquo arrivals (see Foreign stu-dentsrsquo arrivals 2015)R The largest number of language students were 15 years old or younger ndash these totalled 21247 and accounted for 281 of studentsrsquo arrivals up 231 over 2014R Students aged 50 and over were in the minority with just 4486 slightly up from 4252 the previous year (see Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015)

Foreign studentsrsquo arrivals 2015

Country Females Males Totals1 share Austria 1920 1831 3751 497Belgium 470 294 764 101Brazil 1479 867 2347 311Colombia 458 281 739 098Czech Republic 2228 922 3151 417France 4508 3149 7657 1014Germany 5976 4388 10364 1372Hungary 403 296 699 093Italy 9931 8023 17956 2378Japan 1231 362 1593 211Libya 357 812 1170 155Netherlands 779 307 1086 144Poland 1729 1020 2749 364Russia 3464 2254 5720 757Slovakia 411 252 663 088Spain 1930 1339 3269 433Switzerland 1376 1044 2420 320Turkey 891 1399 2290 303Ukraine 381 268 649 086Others2 3912 2574 6487 859 Totals 43834 31682 75524 10000

1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Includes students whose nationality is not known

Language students play truant as 2015 arrivals dip

Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015

Age Females Males Totals1

-15 12261 8985 2124716-17 8534 6162 1469718-25 9284 7231 1651826-35 5642 4112 975736-49 4979 3283 826250+ 2793 1693 4486Age not known 341 216 557 Totals 43834 31682 75524

1 Includes students whose sex is not known

R Females outnumbered males and accounted for 58 of the entire student populationR July was the busiest month for English language schools with 15812 arrivals or 209 of the annual total This was followed by August and June with 165 and 113 per cent of total arrivals respective-ly A similar pattern was also noted in 2014R The most popular course offered in 2015 by these specialist schools was not surprisingly General Eng-lish This course alone accounted for 53811 students (713)R This was followed by the Inten-

sive English course with 152 of total studentsR Foreign students attending Eng-lish language courses comprised 42 of the total number of tourists who travelled to Malta in 2015 In July 206626 foreigners visited Malta of these 77 were English language studentsR The majority of students (298) resided with a host family an in-crease of 25 points over 2014 (see Studentsrsquo accommodation usage 2015)R Accommodation in hotels was chosen by 14530 students an in-crease of 34 over 2014R Collectively foreign students enrolled in schools for English language spent 238481 weeks in Malta The average length of stay per student was 32 weeks ndash the same as in 2014R With an average of 159 weeks students from Colombia recorded the highest average length of stay These were followed by Libyan and Turkish students with an average stay of 119 and 78 weeks respec-tivelyR In 2015 the teaching staff at

English language schools num-bered 1444 and most were fe-malesR Of these most (444) were aged between 18 and 24 R Female teaching personnel com-prised 693 of the total teaching staff

Studentsrsquo accommodationusage 2015

Accommodation Females Males Totals1

Hotel 8444 6084 14530 5 Star 146 133 279 4 Star 3584 2401 5986 3 Star 4714 3550 8265Other collective accommodation2 6066 4114 10181Host families 13555 8977 22532Self-catering 5556 4209 9765Others3 10213 8298 18516 Totals 43834 31682 75524 1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Guest houses hostels and private homes3 Includes accommodation not provided by the school

99

Data bank

Comments on tables

J All raw data in Data bank and elsewhere in Island Travel Trader are sourced from the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) Malta International Airport (MIA) the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) the Ministry for Finance and the National Statistics Office (NSO) - unless otherwise creditedJ NSO data may differ for some months due to rounding see Arrivals by genderJ All statistics are based on tourist arrivals that is they exclude cruise passengers that overnight in Malta see Aggregate international arrivals

International arrivals 2016

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Austria 2333 2333 083Belgium 1932 1932 069France 3772 5497 6444 15713 558Germany 7895 7729 11346 26969 959Ireland 2571 2571 091Italy 17470 14531 18979 50980 1812Libya 176 176 006Netherlands 2097 2097 075Nordic region 6984 6984 248Russia 832 832 030Spain 3028 3028 108Switzerland 1340 1340 048UK 23241 26800 36993 87034 3094US 1872 1872 067Others 32439 26449 18590 77478 2754 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 151922 177204 183764 206627 246485 192550 196692 113042 72569 1791422 Difference 10537 6489 13747

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

Aggregate international arrivals 2016

Arrivals Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Tourists 84817 81005 115519 281341 9964Cruise pax overnighting 622 381 0 1003 036 Totals 85439 81386 115519 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 282344 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 153564 177896 187616 207542 248284 194189 199937 115105 72568 1807268 Dfference 11159 6870 13748

Mode of travel 2016

Mode Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Air 82214 78338 112143 272695 9693Sea 2603 2667 3376 8646 307 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

1010

Data bank

Seasonal arrivals pattern

Season 2015 2016 Winter Arrivals 334407 165822 1867 5894(Jan Feb Nov Dec) Shoulder Arrivals 811353 115519 4529 4106(Mar Apr May Jun Oct) Summer Arrivals 645662 3604 (Jul Aug Sep) Totals 1791422 281341 10000 10000

Arrivals by gender 2016

Official Females Males Calculated tourist females males tourist arrivals arrivals Jan 84817 36711 4328 48106 5672 84817Feb 81005 37158 4587 43847 5413 81005Mar 115519 56660 4905 58858 5095 115518Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals 281341 130529 150811 281340

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016

By age Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share 0-24 9592 11076 18721 39389 140025-44 31816 24338 34698 90852 322945-64 29498 30604 40586 100688 357965+ 13911 14987 21514 50412 1792 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

Monthly arrivals comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr Country 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Austria 1305 1962 2333 1891 3332Belgium 1167 1915 1932 091 3843France 5074 3772 -2566 4983 5497 1031 6908 6444 -672 11944Germany 7456 7895 589 7120 7729 855 10037 11346 1304 14920Ireland 1782 1902 2571 3519 3189Italy 13695 17470 2756 13547 14531 726 19492 18979 -263 23755Libya 474 176 -6287 766Netherlands 1427 1665 2097 2595 3212Nordic region 2464 2918 3567 6984 9580 9400Russia 543 832 5327 982Spain 1423 3028 11277 4862Switzerland 1422 1774 1340 -2449 3134UK 21306 23241 908 24161 26800 1092 31950 36993 1578 44619US 1203 1371 1872 3656 1616Others 15979 32439 10301 21787 26449 2140 16788 18590 1074 22348 Totals 74280 84817 1419 74516 81005 871 101771 115518 1351 151922

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

1111

Data bank

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016(continued)

Purpose of visit Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Business 9492 9291 10292 29075 1033Holiday 71844 66137 94328 232309 8257Other 3481 5577 10899 19957 709 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000 Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share FIT 51040 45894 62214 159148 5657Package 33777 35111 53304 122192 4343 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 Expenditure Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals FIT 20059 17537 24458 62054 of which Accommodation 9813 8922 11980 30715 Airsea fares 10247 8616 12478 31341 Package 17919 17742 30416 66077 Other 27283 22558 31382 81223 Totals(euro000s) 65261 57837 86256 209354 Length of stay Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share(nights)

1-3 19624 21140 24257 65021 23114-6 24189 22236 36672 83097 29547+ 41004 37630 54589 133223 4735 Average LoS 770 720 690 727 10000 Visit frequency Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec First visit 54454 53959 80092 Repeat visit 30363 27046 35427 of which Once a year 19921 18792 23513 More than once a year 10442 8254 11914

Accommodation occupancy and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 56936 63151 1092 59018 63269 720 81559 88108 803 113760 Private 17345 21666 2491 15498 17736 1444 20211 27411 3562 38164 Totals 74281 84817 1418 74516 81005 871 101770 115519 1351 151924

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

8

VallettaJ Last year 75524 foreign students attended English language courses in Malta a drop of 26 over 2014rsquos 77550 the National Statistics Of-fice reportsR The majority of students were Italian (238) German (137) and French (101)R Together these three national-ities accounted for 476 of total studentsrsquo arrivals (see Foreign stu-dentsrsquo arrivals 2015)R The largest number of language students were 15 years old or younger ndash these totalled 21247 and accounted for 281 of studentsrsquo arrivals up 231 over 2014R Students aged 50 and over were in the minority with just 4486 slightly up from 4252 the previous year (see Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015)

Foreign studentsrsquo arrivals 2015

Country Females Males Totals1 share Austria 1920 1831 3751 497Belgium 470 294 764 101Brazil 1479 867 2347 311Colombia 458 281 739 098Czech Republic 2228 922 3151 417France 4508 3149 7657 1014Germany 5976 4388 10364 1372Hungary 403 296 699 093Italy 9931 8023 17956 2378Japan 1231 362 1593 211Libya 357 812 1170 155Netherlands 779 307 1086 144Poland 1729 1020 2749 364Russia 3464 2254 5720 757Slovakia 411 252 663 088Spain 1930 1339 3269 433Switzerland 1376 1044 2420 320Turkey 891 1399 2290 303Ukraine 381 268 649 086Others2 3912 2574 6487 859 Totals 43834 31682 75524 10000

1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Includes students whose nationality is not known

Language students play truant as 2015 arrivals dip

Studentsrsquo arrivals by age and gender 2015

Age Females Males Totals1

-15 12261 8985 2124716-17 8534 6162 1469718-25 9284 7231 1651826-35 5642 4112 975736-49 4979 3283 826250+ 2793 1693 4486Age not known 341 216 557 Totals 43834 31682 75524

1 Includes students whose sex is not known

R Females outnumbered males and accounted for 58 of the entire student populationR July was the busiest month for English language schools with 15812 arrivals or 209 of the annual total This was followed by August and June with 165 and 113 per cent of total arrivals respective-ly A similar pattern was also noted in 2014R The most popular course offered in 2015 by these specialist schools was not surprisingly General Eng-lish This course alone accounted for 53811 students (713)R This was followed by the Inten-

sive English course with 152 of total studentsR Foreign students attending Eng-lish language courses comprised 42 of the total number of tourists who travelled to Malta in 2015 In July 206626 foreigners visited Malta of these 77 were English language studentsR The majority of students (298) resided with a host family an in-crease of 25 points over 2014 (see Studentsrsquo accommodation usage 2015)R Accommodation in hotels was chosen by 14530 students an in-crease of 34 over 2014R Collectively foreign students enrolled in schools for English language spent 238481 weeks in Malta The average length of stay per student was 32 weeks ndash the same as in 2014R With an average of 159 weeks students from Colombia recorded the highest average length of stay These were followed by Libyan and Turkish students with an average stay of 119 and 78 weeks respec-tivelyR In 2015 the teaching staff at

English language schools num-bered 1444 and most were fe-malesR Of these most (444) were aged between 18 and 24 R Female teaching personnel com-prised 693 of the total teaching staff

Studentsrsquo accommodationusage 2015

Accommodation Females Males Totals1

Hotel 8444 6084 14530 5 Star 146 133 279 4 Star 3584 2401 5986 3 Star 4714 3550 8265Other collective accommodation2 6066 4114 10181Host families 13555 8977 22532Self-catering 5556 4209 9765Others3 10213 8298 18516 Totals 43834 31682 75524 1 Includes students whose sex is not known2 Guest houses hostels and private homes3 Includes accommodation not provided by the school

99

Data bank

Comments on tables

J All raw data in Data bank and elsewhere in Island Travel Trader are sourced from the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) Malta International Airport (MIA) the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) the Ministry for Finance and the National Statistics Office (NSO) - unless otherwise creditedJ NSO data may differ for some months due to rounding see Arrivals by genderJ All statistics are based on tourist arrivals that is they exclude cruise passengers that overnight in Malta see Aggregate international arrivals

International arrivals 2016

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Austria 2333 2333 083Belgium 1932 1932 069France 3772 5497 6444 15713 558Germany 7895 7729 11346 26969 959Ireland 2571 2571 091Italy 17470 14531 18979 50980 1812Libya 176 176 006Netherlands 2097 2097 075Nordic region 6984 6984 248Russia 832 832 030Spain 3028 3028 108Switzerland 1340 1340 048UK 23241 26800 36993 87034 3094US 1872 1872 067Others 32439 26449 18590 77478 2754 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 151922 177204 183764 206627 246485 192550 196692 113042 72569 1791422 Difference 10537 6489 13747

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

Aggregate international arrivals 2016

Arrivals Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Tourists 84817 81005 115519 281341 9964Cruise pax overnighting 622 381 0 1003 036 Totals 85439 81386 115519 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 282344 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 153564 177896 187616 207542 248284 194189 199937 115105 72568 1807268 Dfference 11159 6870 13748

Mode of travel 2016

Mode Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Air 82214 78338 112143 272695 9693Sea 2603 2667 3376 8646 307 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

1010

Data bank

Seasonal arrivals pattern

Season 2015 2016 Winter Arrivals 334407 165822 1867 5894(Jan Feb Nov Dec) Shoulder Arrivals 811353 115519 4529 4106(Mar Apr May Jun Oct) Summer Arrivals 645662 3604 (Jul Aug Sep) Totals 1791422 281341 10000 10000

Arrivals by gender 2016

Official Females Males Calculated tourist females males tourist arrivals arrivals Jan 84817 36711 4328 48106 5672 84817Feb 81005 37158 4587 43847 5413 81005Mar 115519 56660 4905 58858 5095 115518Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals 281341 130529 150811 281340

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016

By age Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share 0-24 9592 11076 18721 39389 140025-44 31816 24338 34698 90852 322945-64 29498 30604 40586 100688 357965+ 13911 14987 21514 50412 1792 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

Monthly arrivals comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr Country 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Austria 1305 1962 2333 1891 3332Belgium 1167 1915 1932 091 3843France 5074 3772 -2566 4983 5497 1031 6908 6444 -672 11944Germany 7456 7895 589 7120 7729 855 10037 11346 1304 14920Ireland 1782 1902 2571 3519 3189Italy 13695 17470 2756 13547 14531 726 19492 18979 -263 23755Libya 474 176 -6287 766Netherlands 1427 1665 2097 2595 3212Nordic region 2464 2918 3567 6984 9580 9400Russia 543 832 5327 982Spain 1423 3028 11277 4862Switzerland 1422 1774 1340 -2449 3134UK 21306 23241 908 24161 26800 1092 31950 36993 1578 44619US 1203 1371 1872 3656 1616Others 15979 32439 10301 21787 26449 2140 16788 18590 1074 22348 Totals 74280 84817 1419 74516 81005 871 101771 115518 1351 151922

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

1111

Data bank

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016(continued)

Purpose of visit Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Business 9492 9291 10292 29075 1033Holiday 71844 66137 94328 232309 8257Other 3481 5577 10899 19957 709 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000 Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share FIT 51040 45894 62214 159148 5657Package 33777 35111 53304 122192 4343 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 Expenditure Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals FIT 20059 17537 24458 62054 of which Accommodation 9813 8922 11980 30715 Airsea fares 10247 8616 12478 31341 Package 17919 17742 30416 66077 Other 27283 22558 31382 81223 Totals(euro000s) 65261 57837 86256 209354 Length of stay Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share(nights)

1-3 19624 21140 24257 65021 23114-6 24189 22236 36672 83097 29547+ 41004 37630 54589 133223 4735 Average LoS 770 720 690 727 10000 Visit frequency Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec First visit 54454 53959 80092 Repeat visit 30363 27046 35427 of which Once a year 19921 18792 23513 More than once a year 10442 8254 11914

Accommodation occupancy and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 56936 63151 1092 59018 63269 720 81559 88108 803 113760 Private 17345 21666 2491 15498 17736 1444 20211 27411 3562 38164 Totals 74281 84817 1418 74516 81005 871 101770 115519 1351 151924

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

99

Data bank

Comments on tables

J All raw data in Data bank and elsewhere in Island Travel Trader are sourced from the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) the International Air Transport Association (IATA) the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) Malta International Airport (MIA) the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) the Ministry for Finance and the National Statistics Office (NSO) - unless otherwise creditedJ NSO data may differ for some months due to rounding see Arrivals by genderJ All statistics are based on tourist arrivals that is they exclude cruise passengers that overnight in Malta see Aggregate international arrivals

International arrivals 2016

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Austria 2333 2333 083Belgium 1932 1932 069France 3772 5497 6444 15713 558Germany 7895 7729 11346 26969 959Ireland 2571 2571 091Italy 17470 14531 18979 50980 1812Libya 176 176 006Netherlands 2097 2097 075Nordic region 6984 6984 248Russia 832 832 030Spain 3028 3028 108Switzerland 1340 1340 048UK 23241 26800 36993 87034 3094US 1872 1872 067Others 32439 26449 18590 77478 2754 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 151922 177204 183764 206627 246485 192550 196692 113042 72569 1791422 Difference 10537 6489 13747

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

Aggregate international arrivals 2016

Arrivals Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Tourists 84817 81005 115519 281341 9964Cruise pax overnighting 622 381 0 1003 036 Totals 85439 81386 115519 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 282344 10000 2015 74280 74516 101771 153564 177896 187616 207542 248284 194189 199937 115105 72568 1807268 Dfference 11159 6870 13748

Mode of travel 2016

Mode Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share

Air 82214 78338 112143 272695 9693Sea 2603 2667 3376 8646 307 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

1010

Data bank

Seasonal arrivals pattern

Season 2015 2016 Winter Arrivals 334407 165822 1867 5894(Jan Feb Nov Dec) Shoulder Arrivals 811353 115519 4529 4106(Mar Apr May Jun Oct) Summer Arrivals 645662 3604 (Jul Aug Sep) Totals 1791422 281341 10000 10000

Arrivals by gender 2016

Official Females Males Calculated tourist females males tourist arrivals arrivals Jan 84817 36711 4328 48106 5672 84817Feb 81005 37158 4587 43847 5413 81005Mar 115519 56660 4905 58858 5095 115518Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals 281341 130529 150811 281340

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016

By age Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share 0-24 9592 11076 18721 39389 140025-44 31816 24338 34698 90852 322945-64 29498 30604 40586 100688 357965+ 13911 14987 21514 50412 1792 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

Monthly arrivals comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr Country 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Austria 1305 1962 2333 1891 3332Belgium 1167 1915 1932 091 3843France 5074 3772 -2566 4983 5497 1031 6908 6444 -672 11944Germany 7456 7895 589 7120 7729 855 10037 11346 1304 14920Ireland 1782 1902 2571 3519 3189Italy 13695 17470 2756 13547 14531 726 19492 18979 -263 23755Libya 474 176 -6287 766Netherlands 1427 1665 2097 2595 3212Nordic region 2464 2918 3567 6984 9580 9400Russia 543 832 5327 982Spain 1423 3028 11277 4862Switzerland 1422 1774 1340 -2449 3134UK 21306 23241 908 24161 26800 1092 31950 36993 1578 44619US 1203 1371 1872 3656 1616Others 15979 32439 10301 21787 26449 2140 16788 18590 1074 22348 Totals 74280 84817 1419 74516 81005 871 101771 115518 1351 151922

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

1111

Data bank

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016(continued)

Purpose of visit Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Business 9492 9291 10292 29075 1033Holiday 71844 66137 94328 232309 8257Other 3481 5577 10899 19957 709 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000 Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share FIT 51040 45894 62214 159148 5657Package 33777 35111 53304 122192 4343 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 Expenditure Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals FIT 20059 17537 24458 62054 of which Accommodation 9813 8922 11980 30715 Airsea fares 10247 8616 12478 31341 Package 17919 17742 30416 66077 Other 27283 22558 31382 81223 Totals(euro000s) 65261 57837 86256 209354 Length of stay Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share(nights)

1-3 19624 21140 24257 65021 23114-6 24189 22236 36672 83097 29547+ 41004 37630 54589 133223 4735 Average LoS 770 720 690 727 10000 Visit frequency Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec First visit 54454 53959 80092 Repeat visit 30363 27046 35427 of which Once a year 19921 18792 23513 More than once a year 10442 8254 11914

Accommodation occupancy and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 56936 63151 1092 59018 63269 720 81559 88108 803 113760 Private 17345 21666 2491 15498 17736 1444 20211 27411 3562 38164 Totals 74281 84817 1418 74516 81005 871 101770 115519 1351 151924

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

1010

Data bank

Seasonal arrivals pattern

Season 2015 2016 Winter Arrivals 334407 165822 1867 5894(Jan Feb Nov Dec) Shoulder Arrivals 811353 115519 4529 4106(Mar Apr May Jun Oct) Summer Arrivals 645662 3604 (Jul Aug Sep) Totals 1791422 281341 10000 10000

Arrivals by gender 2016

Official Females Males Calculated tourist females males tourist arrivals arrivals Jan 84817 36711 4328 48106 5672 84817Feb 81005 37158 4587 43847 5413 81005Mar 115519 56660 4905 58858 5095 115518Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals 281341 130529 150811 281340

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016

By age Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share 0-24 9592 11076 18721 39389 140025-44 31816 24338 34698 90852 322945-64 29498 30604 40586 100688 357965+ 13911 14987 21514 50412 1792 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000

Monthly arrivals comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr Country 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Austria 1305 1962 2333 1891 3332Belgium 1167 1915 1932 091 3843France 5074 3772 -2566 4983 5497 1031 6908 6444 -672 11944Germany 7456 7895 589 7120 7729 855 10037 11346 1304 14920Ireland 1782 1902 2571 3519 3189Italy 13695 17470 2756 13547 14531 726 19492 18979 -263 23755Libya 474 176 -6287 766Netherlands 1427 1665 2097 2595 3212Nordic region 2464 2918 3567 6984 9580 9400Russia 543 832 5327 982Spain 1423 3028 11277 4862Switzerland 1422 1774 1340 -2449 3134UK 21306 23241 908 24161 26800 1092 31950 36993 1578 44619US 1203 1371 1872 3656 1616Others 15979 32439 10301 21787 26449 2140 16788 18590 1074 22348 Totals 74280 84817 1419 74516 81005 871 101771 115518 1351 151922

Denmark Finland Norway Sweden

1111

Data bank

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016(continued)

Purpose of visit Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Business 9492 9291 10292 29075 1033Holiday 71844 66137 94328 232309 8257Other 3481 5577 10899 19957 709 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000 Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share FIT 51040 45894 62214 159148 5657Package 33777 35111 53304 122192 4343 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 Expenditure Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals FIT 20059 17537 24458 62054 of which Accommodation 9813 8922 11980 30715 Airsea fares 10247 8616 12478 31341 Package 17919 17742 30416 66077 Other 27283 22558 31382 81223 Totals(euro000s) 65261 57837 86256 209354 Length of stay Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share(nights)

1-3 19624 21140 24257 65021 23114-6 24189 22236 36672 83097 29547+ 41004 37630 54589 133223 4735 Average LoS 770 720 690 727 10000 Visit frequency Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec First visit 54454 53959 80092 Repeat visit 30363 27046 35427 of which Once a year 19921 18792 23513 More than once a year 10442 8254 11914

Accommodation occupancy and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 56936 63151 1092 59018 63269 720 81559 88108 803 113760 Private 17345 21666 2491 15498 17736 1444 20211 27411 3562 38164 Totals 74281 84817 1418 74516 81005 871 101770 115519 1351 151924

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

1111

Data bank

Socio-demographicprofileoftravellers2016(continued)

Purpose of visit Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Business 9492 9291 10292 29075 1033Holiday 71844 66137 94328 232309 8257Other 3481 5577 10899 19957 709 Totals 84817 81005 115519 281341 10000 Type Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share FIT 51040 45894 62214 159148 5657Package 33777 35111 53304 122192 4343 Totals 84817 81005 115518 281340 10000 Expenditure Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals FIT 20059 17537 24458 62054 of which Accommodation 9813 8922 11980 30715 Airsea fares 10247 8616 12478 31341 Package 17919 17742 30416 66077 Other 27283 22558 31382 81223 Totals(euro000s) 65261 57837 86256 209354 Length of stay Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share(nights)

1-3 19624 21140 24257 65021 23114-6 24189 22236 36672 83097 29547+ 41004 37630 54589 133223 4735 Average LoS 770 720 690 727 10000 Visit frequency Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec First visit 54454 53959 80092 Repeat visit 30363 27046 35427 of which Once a year 19921 18792 23513 More than once a year 10442 8254 11914

Accommodation occupancy and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 56936 63151 1092 59018 63269 720 81559 88108 803 113760 Private 17345 21666 2491 15498 17736 1444 20211 27411 3562 38164 Totals 74281 84817 1418 74516 81005 871 101770 115519 1351 151924

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

1212

Data bank

Guest nights and monthly comparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- Collective 385919 409159 602 376161 405877 790 524864 569397 848 701384 Private 216591 247401 1422 153179 175517 1458 199359 233313 1703 317428 Totals 602510 656560 897 529340 581394 983 724223 802710 1084 1018812

Hotels tourist villages guest houses hostels BampB and campsites

MaltaInternationalAirporttraffic2016

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals

International paxArrivals 119169 121273 169452 409894Departures 117383 115375 158072 390830 Totals 236552 236648 327524 800724 International aircraft movements Arrivals 970 876 1172 3018Departures 973 878 1169 3020 Totals 1943 1754 2341 6038 Cargo (tonnes) Import 726 685 785 2196Export 334 323 456 1113 Totals 1060 1008 1241 3309

MaltaInternationalAirportmonthlytrafficcomparison

Jan Feb Mar Apr 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +- 2015 2016 +-

International paxArrivals 104941 119169 1356 106882 121273 1346 141405 169452 1983 201908 Departures 103935 117383 1294 102014 115375 1310 133929 158072 1803 191284 Totals 208876 236552 1325 208896 236648 1329 275334 327524 1896 393192 International aircraft movementsArrivals 915 970 601 844 876 379 1038 1172 1291 1527 Departures 916 973 622 843 878 415 1038 1169 1262 1527 Totals 1831 1943 612 1687 1754 397 2076 2341 1276 3054 Cargo (tonnes) Import 611 726 1882 660 685 379 643 785 2208 661 Export 406 334 -1773 394 323 -1802 502 456 -916 519 Totals 1017 1060 423 1054 1008 -436 1145 1241 838 1180

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

1313

Data bank

Malta International Airport passenger movements 2016Top 10 countries by month

Country Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Totals Share Austria 7059 7059 104Belgium 5093 5305 10398 153France 9826 10940 14132 34898 515Germany 30616 31759 45192 107567 1587Italy 58494 58560 72843 189897 2802Netherlands 6536 6471 8131 21138 312Poland 5145 5145 076Spain 5888 5239 9662 20789 307Switzerland 4651 7002 11653 172Turkey 9411 8350 17761 262UAE 6053 5665 11718 173UK 67337 73227 99166 239730 3537

Cruiseshiptraffic2016

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals

Cruise ship calls 17 17 Pax traffic Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Landed pax 205 205 052Transit pax 39170 39170 9948 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Nationality Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Australia 424 424 108Canada 600 600 152France 4346 4346 1104Germany 4878 4878 1239Italy 6884 6884 1748Japan 794 794 202Malta 72 72 018Spain 1465 1465 372UK 3814 3814 969US 3277 3277 832Others 12821 12821 3256 Totals 39375 39375 10000 Pax by gender Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share Females 21002 21002 5334Males 18373 18373 4666 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Pax by age Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Totals share 0-19 6039 6039 153420-39 6331 6331 160840-59 11404 11404 289660-79 14021 14021 356180+ 1580 1580 401 Totals 39375 39375 10000

Quarterlycruisetrafficcomparisons Q1 2015 2016 +- Cruise ship calls 9 17 8889 Pax traffic 2015 2016 +-

Landed pax 71 205 18873Transit pax 20582 39170 9031 Totals 20653 39375 9065 Nationality 2015 2016 +- Australia 189 424 12434Canada 310 600 9355France 2783 4346 5616Germany 3697 4878 3194Italy 5091 6884 3522Japan 187 794 32460Malta 1 72 710000Spain 743 1465 9717UK 1502 3814 15393US 561 3277 48414Others 5589 12821 12940 Totals 20653 39375 9065

Notes Landed pax arrive in Malta on a cruise ship and leave the islands by other means Transit pax are arrive and leave Malta on the same cruise ship

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels

1414

Publisher and Editor Terence Mirabelli Email tmirabellitravelmaltacom Group Advertisement Director Josephine Mirabelli Email jomirabellitravelmaltacomIsland Publications Limited 3638 Triq L-Isperanza Mosta MST 1309 Malta Tel (+356) 21431864 Site wwwtravelmaltacom

Island Travel Trader is published 10 times a year and distributed in portable document format (pdf) by email on a controlled circulation basis to senior personnel of all airlines operating to and from Malta the senior management of cruise lines whose ships call at Malta foreign tour operators who programme the islands all domestic travel agents in and those foreign-based who actively sell services to the islands international and national conference and exhibition organisers incentive and special interest travel companies Malta-based hoteliers and car rental firms

copy Island Publications Ltd 2016 All rights reserved No reproduction copying image scanning storing or recording by any means in any form nor broadcasting or transmission through any medium of any part of this newsletter is permitted without the express consent of Island Publications Limited

them to undercut pricing and avoid restrictionsR Research author Lauren Foye ex-plains ldquothe shared space industry which includes provider Airbnb is set to significantly impact the hotel industry with consumers set to spend over euro30bn in 2020 That sum represents approximately 6 of todayrsquos global hotel industry market sizerdquoR Whilst Uber ndash not yet available in Malta ndash has struggled to gain a significant foothold in China large-ly due to the dominance of Taxi hailing service Didi Kuaidi Uber is not without the determination and the means to force its way into new marketsR Uber has reportedly spent euro1bn per year on expansion in China alone In addition it has recently set its sights on disrupting the huge motorbike taxi industries of India and Thailand displaying a will-ingness and drive to aggressively obtain market shareR Uberrsquos February announcement that it is to launch its UberMO-TO service in India opens it to an enormous potential market ndash the city of Bangalore alone has 35mn registered motorbikes and In-dia already allows motorbike taxi bookings through applications in two states

Continued from page 6

J Kudos to Floriana-based Europa Tours for their 2016 brochure launched recently at AMITEXR What strikes us as odd with this colourful 60-pager is that most of the brochure is in Maltese ndash all tours prices conditions etc

R Odd may not be the right word after all Maltese is one of the two national languages of the country Letrsquos say itrsquos a strange brochureR Strange because the only tours in English are long haul ones ndash to Thailand China and an Alaska cruise that also takes in bits of CanadaR One wonders does Europa Tours believe Maltese readers do not travel long haul And are English readers only interested in far flung corners of the world do they not travel to European destination as well

Stop Press

J As we were about to publish this edition of Island Travel Trader and referring to the lead story a MHRA council member told us that he had been in touch with both Bookingcom and Ex-pedia ldquoto check whether they can firstly include the date ie 1 June and secondly correct the word-ing to ldquoEco Contributionrsquordquo

March arrivals bouyant

VallettaJ Total arrivals for March stood at 115519 an increase of 142 over the corresponding month of 2015 reports the National Statistics OfficeR A total of 94328 people travelled to the islands for a holiday whilst a further 10292 came on business (see Socio-demographic profile of

travellers 2016 on page 10) R Arrivals from EU member coun-tries went up by 152 to 99703 when compared to March last yearR The largest proportion of visi-tors were aged between 45 and 64 followed by those in the 25 to 44 age bracket R Total nights spent went up by 116 to 802711R The largest share of guest nights (709) were spent in hotels