FTIAS Ltd and Meeting Point Malta Ltd, subsidiaries of FTI Touristik Group GmbH, are taking up 3,900 square metres of office space at SmartCity Malta, with 250 peopletaking up three floors.

FTI Touristik is the tour operator responsible for bringing the largest amount of holidaymakers to the Maltese islands from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and has operated to Malta for the past 31 years. The group’s inbound company, Meeting Point Malta, is a destination management company.

FTIAS was originally set up in 1990 to assist in the preparation of management accounts, reporting and the processing of invoices for the local destination management company. Over the years, by demonstrating the ability to work in an efficient and effect-ive manner, the company managed to take over the responsibility for handling creditors’ operations for the group internationally.

Present for the signing were Minister for Economic Affairs, Investment and Small Business Chris Cardona, CEO of SmartCity Malta Anthony P. Tabone, managing director at FTIAS Kevin Paris, CFO for Meeting Point International Joe Gauci and managing director for Meeting Point Malta Martin Farrugia.

“FTIAS started off in 2012 with 120 employees but is now looking to top the 200 mark by the end of this year, representing a 60 per cent increment over a span of three years,” Mr Paris said.

“The company is projecting a further growth of 50 employees by 2015. In order to address the increased business demand, we have had to grow our numbers. This entails an increase of over €2 million in salaries over the next three years together with a further investment of more than €2 million in capital and lease expenditure. Our company has continued consolidating its core operations relating to the creditors’ function within the group, but we have also extended our IT, projects and human resources departments to address our internal requirements and those of our third-party clients.”