Eventia International Awards presentation ceremony with, first from left Mr Sam Mifsud MTA Chairman

Malta wins four silvers at UK's top business travel industry awards

For the second year running Malta has received the nod from the UK's conference and incentive travel industry winning four silvers at the trade's prestigious Eventia International Awards.

The annual awards, organised in association with Conference and Incentive Travel Magazine, honour outstanding business-to-business and business-to-consumer events, meetings and conferences held outside the UK.

Allergan's EMEA Sales Conference held in Malta in January 2008 won silver for Best Promotional Communication, Most Creative Use of a Destination, Best Conference (Short Haul) and Best Event Demonstrating Corporate Social Responsibility. The five-day conference was organised by World Events agency and handled locally by AGL Alliance Group Ltd. It brought to Malta 765 delegates from 10 countries and combined reward, motivation and communication objectives. The delegates stayed at various hotels including Hilton Malta, Corinthia San Gorg and Intercontinental Malta. The main meeting was held at the Hilton Conference Centre.

Apart from participating in 11 social activities and 30 team dinners, including a spectacular gala finale at the Eden Ice Arena, the delegates split into 35 teams and followed a specially designed version of Monopoly, travelling across Malta renovating nine properties including an orphanage, a children's home and a disabilities leisure centre. Run in conjunction with the Maltese government, Allergan's innovative CSR enterprise set the platform for an ongoing fundraising initiative.

Commenting on the awards, Marieanne Barthet Brown, MTA Senior Marketing Manager MICE for the UK and Irish markets said: “In recent years Malta has gone from strength to strength establishing itself as the destination of choice among UK conference and events organisers. The UK MICE market is a very important one for Malta accounting for around 18% of all delegate arrivals. This year the MTO in London is continuing with an aggressive promotional campaign aimed directly at the trade, hosting workshops and participating in specialist travel trade fairs.”

Mrs Barthet Brown added that the MTA's Quality Assurance Scheme, which acknowledges DMCs ongoing commitment to high standards of service, professionalism and consistency, give clients confidence that their conference or event has been assigned to a safe pair of expert hands. AGL Alliance Group is one of the first 18 DMCs to be awarded the Quality Assured seal.

This is the second consecutive year that Eventia International Awards have been presented to conferences handled by AGL Alliance Group Ltd.

Mario Borg, AGL Alliance Group ltd Director said the awards confirm Malta is a leading player in the meetings, incentives, conferences and events market.

“This award highlights the high standard of service offered by AGL Alliance Group. We enjoy a long working relationship with World Events spanning several years. The agency loves working with Malta as they find it extremely safe with excellent standards both in terms of accommodation and meeting facilities as well as for the social aspect of the programme,” said Mr Borg