Malta’s record tourism arrivals in 2025 reflect a long-term national strategy that continues to evolve. After topping 4 million visitors last year, Carlo Micallef, CEO of the Malta Tourism Authority, outlines why the island’s next steps focus on value over volume, growing the German market and boosting the MICE segment.
Q: What factors are driving Malta’s landmark performance in tourism?
The demand for Malta and Gozo has been phenomenal. It is the fruit of a great deal of hard work – by the MTA team, by the private sector, by the whole ecosystem of the Malta tourism industry and beyond. Tourism cannot exist in isolation because anyone who comes to Malta touches on all other industries, sectors and government bodies that support it.
We have seen record years consecutively since the pandemic. In 2019, we welcomed 2.75 million tourists. We are now at 4 million – 4,022,000 to be precise. More importantly, tourism expenditure has doubled in the same period. In 2019, it stood at around €2 billion. In 2025, it reached nearly €4 billion.
The numbers are the easiest metric to look at, but what matters most is what that expenditure puts into our economy. Tourism is the driver of many other sectors: food production, services, transport and hospitality. The importance of this became viscerally clear during the pandemic in 2020. When tourism stopped, so did the bakeries, the laundries, the food importers, the taxi drivers and the tour guides. You see the whole system and realise how important tourism is. It is one of the pillars of our economy – it has stood the test of time since the 1960s and accounts for some 20 to 25% of GDP when the multiplier effect is included.
Q: How has MTA managed the balance between growth in volume and growth in value?
We have not been chasing numbers. We have not been discounting prices. Our hotels have raised prices consistently, eating out in Malta has become more expensive and travelling here is not cheap. People are ready to spend more to come to Malta, and our strategy has been to attract tourism that is prepared to spend more throughout the year.
A conscious decision was made to grow tourism in the winter months rather than push for further expansion at peak. The rate of growth in winter has been running at 20% to 30% year on year. To give a sense of scale, last January outperformed August 2013. February 2026 was double February 2019. When a destination fills beds in winter, hotels become more profitable, careers replace seasonal jobs and investment flows into training, upkeep and service improvement.
We are also working to slow growth at peak, attract a higher-yielding visitor in summer and protect the destination’s quality. The aim is a well-managed, year-round destination – which is what Malta has become. According to Eurostat and UNWTO data, Malta is now the top performer in growth of bed nights in Europe, recording a 15% increase in 2025 against 2024, with Poland second at 9.6%.
Q: How does Malta’s Vision 2050 plan influence its long-term tourism strategy?
Vision 2050 is about ensuring that growth continues to be managed, not merely accumulated. The foundation has already been built through careful marketing, careful targeting and investment in route development. As an island nation, Malta relies entirely on air connectivity. We are currently served by 120 to 130 routes across Europe and beyond – to the Middle East, and with a direct service from New York beginning this June.
The next phase is centred on quality, value and niche development. Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions – MICE – is central to the future. We have hotels with conference facilities, the Mediterranean Conference Centre and the MFCC in Ta’ Qali, but to compete at scale we need a modern multi-purpose convention centre: one capable of hosting 4,000 to 10,000 delegates, accommodating expos, indoor sports and major concerts. This is infrastructure that exists in Liverpool and Vienna. Malta needs to enter that league now, because conference and incentive visitors spend three to four times what the leisure client spends.
Alongside this, we are working to attract internationally recognised hotel brands to the destination. When luxury brands with loyal global clientele choose Malta, they bring their audiences with them. The investment appetite is already here. There is significant private capital flowing into new properties – boutique hotels, restored palazzos converted into 12-suite luxury stays. Regulatory changes have been introduced to limit new development in lower categories and incentivise four- and five-star investment. The confidence in this market is remarkable.
Q: As a strategically important source market, how are you engaging with Germany?
Germany is a very important market and one we have identified as a priority for growth in the years ahead. We are conducting an in-depth study of our positioning and strategy there precisely because I believe we are not yet getting the rate of return we should be from this market.
The issue is one of perception. For many years, Malta was sold in the German market primarily as a beach holiday and English language learning destination. That stereotype persists and it does not do Malta justice. When German travel professionals visit Malta for the first time, many are genuinely surprised by what they find. We showed them only a fraction of what Malta offers and they were amazed. That gap between reality and perception is what we need to close.
Malta today is a destination for connoisseurs – people who want authentic experiences, who want to touch and feel the culture, mingle with locals and make lasting memories. It offers gastronomy, opera, active holidays, diving, yachting, history going back 9,000 years, polyculture and a vibrancy that is entirely distinct from the typical Mediterranean island. The German market, with its high purchasing power, its appreciation of depth and its appetite for this kind of offering, is exactly the audience we want to reach. We have the right ingredients; we have simply not been clever enough yet in communicating them.
Q: How are you developing Malta’s cultural heritage dimension?
Recent archaeological discoveries in the north of Malta have revised our history: the island was inhabited nearly 9,000 years ago, 2,000 years earlier than previously believed. That is a remarkable asset and one that deserves far wider recognition.
Our fireworks festival is another dimension of this. Three evenings in Grand Harbour and one in Gozo drew attention around the world – the final night was broadcast live on CNN and Fox. Fireworks and the village festa are not events; they are the essence of our culture. They are rooted in faith, family, community and celebration. The festa has now been recognised by UNESCO World Heritage – and rightly so.
Tourism is also playing a direct role in preserving this heritage. We recently co-financed the restoration of the facade of the Church of St Paul in Rabat. We are supporting works on the Rotunda in Mosta and helping establish a museum of religious heritage there. The logic is straightforward: tourism generates the revenue that allows us to maintain and restore what would otherwise be left to deteriorate. In agriculture, the same principle applies. Through agritourism, we are helping keep traditional farmers on the land, preserving skills that might otherwise be lost – honey production, olive oil, lace-making, glass-blowing, the building of traditional luzzus. These cottage crafts cannot sustain a livelihood on their own, but as carefully managed visitor experiences they become economically viable and culturally vital.
Q: How are you integrating sustainability principles in the tourism sector?
It cannot be done overnight, but we are moving firmly in that direction. The Blue Lagoon is one example. In the past it was unmanaged – a free-for-all. We now operate a booking system with a cap of 4,000 visitors per six-hour session. We have introduced security and cleaning personnel, improved infrastructure and invested in the experience. Critically, we identified and addressed an environmental problem: accumulated waste was attracting rats that were threatening the nesting bird population. Managing access was not optional; it was necessary.
Across the wider destination, our public transport is free of charge. We have added 40 electric vehicles to the fleet. Gozo’s public transport will also be free. We are actively promoting Green Key certification for hotels and catering establishments and aligning with 37 OECD-compatible sustainability indicators. These are not cosmetic measures. The destination’s appeal depends on its environment and its authenticity, and both must be actively protected.
Q: How does Malta’s status as a testing ground for innovation create investment opportunities for Germany?
German direct investment in Malta already stands at around €17.5 billion, with approximately 60 German companies operating here. But I think the opportunity goes well beyond traditional investment in hotels or tourism infrastructure.
Malta is a highly developed, multicultural, cosmopolitan and well-connected small island in the centre of the Mediterranean. It is large enough to test ideas meaningfully, but small enough that a misstep stays contained. I spent several years in the Netherlands and watched it function as a testing ground for marketing campaigns and brand launches: high standard of living, compact market, manageable risk. Malta can play a similar role. A product that works in Malta can go anywhere. A product that does not work in Malta will not break a brand.
What we want to attract are creative minds – innovators, entrepreneurs and startups who want to build something, test something or try something new. Malta Enterprise, the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, the MFSA and other agencies are pro-business and accessible. Tax incentives are in place. The country’s quality of life, connectivity and security make it attractive as a base. Malta could be the place where young entrepreneurs set themselves up and begin building their products. These are also the people who will hold conferences here, attract their peers and create the kind of economic ecosystem that supports everything else.
Q: How would you summarise Malta’s proposition for German visitors and investors?
Malta is not what many think. Malta is not the typical island; Malta is a vibrant European city with all the opportunities that a vibrant European city like Munich or Berlin can offer – but blessed with the characteristics of a Mediterranean island in a Mediterranean setting, with very hospitable people and a diverse offer that allows people to come in, blend in and shine.
Malta is more than a destination to visit on holiday. Malta is a country that allows you to follow your dreams, that allows you to try and realise your dreams. We invite innovators and entrepreneurs, startups, to consider Malta as their base – to come and build their product here, and from here take it to the world.
