One of 900 the bus side posters for the campaigns in Lyon, Toulouse, and Marseille.

Malta promotions in core markets

The Malta Tourism Authority is in a continuous effort to avidly promote Malta in it’s core markets, with every possible promotional medium being considered, the MTA is actively promoting Malta in our core markets in an effort to continue making Malta more visible. E-marketing and TV commercials have also been commissioned by the MTA to ensure Malta receives the vastest and best possible exposure.

In keeping with the 3-year Strategic Marketing plan launched towards the end of 2007, early 2008 has seen wave after wave of publicity for Malta in the core markets. February and March saw wide spread advertising of Malta in France. In February, MTA advertised within the Paris metro with 650 large posters. Another 300 large posters were displayed through prominently placed street furniture in Paris. The month of April will also see the 2nd wave of Paris subway posters, plus bus side posters campaigns in Lyon, Toulouse, and Marseille, 300 buses per city. In addition to this a window campaign with travel agency network Carlson Wagonlit in 300 travel agent windows is currently underway.

In Italy, a campaign on the TV network of the Grande Stazione di Trenitalia was running in Italy making use of 1,152 large flat screen TV’s in all the 22 major central train stations. The spot was shown simultaneously on all screens in any train station for the entire month of February, reaching 52 million people. Malta was also present at the Globe fair in Rome in March and advertising promotions continue in April with Maxi Retro (back of) adverts in Rome, 65 buses; Milan, 50 buses and 1 tram; Bologna, 110 buses and 2 entire Malta buses in Treviso and Mestre.

A substantial part of the MTA's promotion in Italy and France was done in co-operation with Air Malta.

Recently, Spain saw a stepping up of promotions. A huge 299 square metre billboard is being prominently displayed in Barcelona on the Gran Via 320. This is one of Barcelona's main streets, as it cuts through the heart of the city and leads to the airport, beach and exhibition centre. This highly visible billboard is also well lit up during the night and is on display throughout the month of April. Hundreds of posters in the Barcelona and Madrid subways, 2 trams with adverts in Valencia for 2 months and Maxi Retro buses in Barcelona, and a radio campaign in Madrid were all confirmed to promote the new flight connections from Spain to Malta via Ryanair, Vueling and Click Air.

Travel agent on-line booking portals constantly back this widespread campaign. Barters were negotiated with various websites and Maltahas been and will continue being visible with banners, skyscrapers, buttons, miniweb pages and TO offers including Air Malta flights to relay the poster campaigns. As is evident the Malta Tourism Authority is investing a substantial percentage of its marketing budget to campaigns in core markets to ensure that tourism numbers continue to flourish.