Malta was the winner of the title "Potential Destination of the Year" during a prestigious tourism awards event held in Beijing on 6 December 2019. These awards are organized by the renowned Chinese magazine Voyage.  This prestigious award, which recognizes the Maltese Islands as an attractive new tourism destination for Chinese travellers, was presented by Ms. Zhang Zilin, a famous celebrity in China and former Miss World. 

 

Ms. Zhang and well-known artist Mr. Ling Xiaosu joined 500 travel experts from all over the globe to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Voyage Magazine (China). Voyage is an in-depth observer of the global tourism industry and a witness to the booming tourism sector in China. In 2019, Voyage Magazine presented travel stories and reports from nearly 200 destinations, covering a variety of topics that included outdoors and nature, culture and art, island vacations, and accommodation experiences. 

 

Commenting on the significance of this award, the Malta Tourism Authority Deputy CEO & CMO Carlo Micallef stated that "Over the past months, the Malta Tourism Authority has intensified its activities in China. Last October, a delegation from Malta visited this important market that offers great opportunities to attract new high spend tourism to our Islands. Apart from the signing of an MOU between MTA and four key Chinese travel trade partners in Beijing, MTA also held a B2B seminar during which the authority, together with Heritage Malta and Conventions Malta, shared information about Malta's tourism product with a number of top Chinese travel agency professionals. In December, 10 Chinese travel trade guests from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou participated in a familiarisation trip organised by MTA and Conventions Malta. With more communication, media and trade activity, Malta shall manage to attract increasing volume of Chinese tourists in the years to come," concluded Mr Micallef.