Watch: Football contributes over €5 million in sports tourism – Minister

Sports tourism has grown considerably over the past 12 months, particularly through Malta training camps from a number of international football teams, that has yielded over €5 million in the economy, according to Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli.

The Tourism Minister said this during a visit to the Malta Football Association offices on Monday during which a number of opportunities to boost sports tourism on our islands.

“A number of studies were compiled and showed that through a joint-effort by Malta Tourism Authoriy, the Malta FA and Sports Plus Ltd, these training camps have generated 30,000 bednights,” Farrugia Portelli said.

“Apart from this there were advertising campaigns promoting Malta in various websites, TV stations and newspapers after several sports journalists travelled to the islands to follow the teams on a training camp.”

The Tourism Minister added that she is looking forward to see the strong relationship that exists between the Malta FA and the Ministry, along with the Tourism Authority, continues to flourish in the coming months.

On his part, Bjorn Vassallo, the Malta FA president, heaped praise on the collaboration that exists between the governing body, the Tourism Ministry and that Malta Tourism Authority and said that it was important that similar meetings continue to be held as they provide more motivation to the Malta FA to further improve its facilities so that Malta remains competitive in Sports Tourism in the southern part of Europe.

The MFA president ended his speech by emphasising that football contributes a lot to the country’s economy.

He said that bednight accomodation is spread over two areas, where 15,000 bed nights comes through Sports Plus Ltd, which is subsidised by the Malta FA and supported by the MTA, while the other 15,000 are generated from national teams that travel to our islands to compete in competitive matches.  

MTA chairman Gavin Gulia and Ronald Mizzi, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Tourism and Consumer Protection, also were present for the meeting.