Tourism Agents welcome Business Travel Incentive Scheme

FATTA welcomes the incentive scheme aimed at stimulating business travel for 2021 and 2022 as announced by the Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection this afternoon.

This scheme serves as a significant boost of encouragement for local DMCs (Destination Management Companies) who specialise in attracting MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) tourism to Malta and Gozo, FATTA said.

The lead time for marketing initiatives to come to fruition in this segment is generally between 9 to 18 months and the direct results of this scheme are expected to peak in the Spring of 2022, they added

FATTA were reacting two new schemes, worth a total of €5.5 million, announced by the government on Friday which would focus on marketing for companies within the accommodation and MICE sectors.

The MICE segment is crucial to the tourism mix as it contributes to reducing the impact of seasonality and is recognised as high quality business benefitting a wide range of service providers beyond accommodation and traditional tourism operators. FATTA and other stakeholders have worked closely with the Ministry for Tourism and Consumer Protection and the Malta Tourism Authority over the past nine months to trigger this scheme.

Commenting on the incentive scheme, FATTA President Iain Tonna said “This is arguably the most powerful of the tourism related schemes announced so far in that the benefit cascades down the entire chain of local suppliers in this segment.”

Tonna concluded “The timing of this announcement is welcome as it enables DMCs to pitch aggressively and competitively against other destinations for valuable MICE business in 2022 and possibly even in the last quarter of 2021 at a time when interest is picking up.”

FATTA is a registered employers association representing the majority of travel and tourism incoming and outgoing operators, destination management companies that organise meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) and destination wedding planners in Malta. FATTA is also registered as a full member of ECTAA having its representatives on the ECTAA Board in Brussels. ECTAA represents almost 70,000 Travel and Tourism Operators in the European Union.