MTA Germany boosts diving promotion for 2010 - Launch of state-of-the-art iPhone application

The Malta Tourism Authority’s office in Germany will put even more effort into the promotion of Malta, Gozo and Comino as amazing diving destinations for German divers. For this purpose, MTA Germany has joined forces with “Taucher.Net” – Europe’s leading scuba diving portal targeted to the German speaking scuba market.

Thanks to a very short term yet highly attractive offer by “Taucher.Net”, MTA Germany had decided to be present with a stand at the annual world leading watersport fair “Boot” in Düsseldorf from January 23rd-31st. Every year, “Boot” fair is attended by around 250,000 water sport enthusiasts. MTA Germany thus complemented the presence of the Maltese Islands together with several Maltese and Gozitan diving bases at “Boot” fair’s diving hall. The Malta stand attracted a high number of divers interested in the Maltese Islands.

MTA Germany also sponsored typical Maltese drinks and specialties for a legendary “Happy Hour” socialising event at the “Taucher.Net” stand which was again attended by a big crowd of divers.

Furthermore, the Maltese Islands were featured with a full page advert in the daily issue of a special “Boot” fair edition of taucher.net’s PDF magazine “Dive Inside”. The February issue of “Dive Inside”, which is regularly downloaded 15,000 times, will contain a special feature about the Maltese Islands. In addition to further raise the islands’ profile, the Maltese Islands will be the main destination sponsor of the 2011 fair’s official and high class amateur underwater photography competition TopShot which was sponsored by The Egypt Tourism Board this year.

The portal “Taucher.Net” is part of the outdoor-channel, a group of magazines and websites promoting outdoor activities. With about 500,000 divers visiting “Taucher.Net” each month, “Taucher.Net” serves about 2,500,000 page impressions of scuba related content. The main part of “Taucher.Net” consists of a discussion board with about 60,000 pages, a knowledge base about dive centers with about 50,000 reports and a huge photo & video library with over 70,000 media items.

MTA Germany will co-operate with “Taucher.Net” in a variety of ways in order to attract as many German divers as possible and to feature the Maltese Islands as a top diving destination in the Mediterranean. The site will have a microsite about Malta and Gozo, a survey, a competition and a travel blog amongst others.  On-line advertising is also planned for this site.

Furthermore, MTA Germany intends to boost Malta’s presence with iPhone users. This sophisticated Smartphone is becoming increasingly popular in Germany and iPhone users are enthusiastic about the huge variety of helpful and convenient iPhone applications. The Malta application will not only provide useful information about diving bases and diving spots, but also about hotels and other service providers on the islands as well as general destination information.