The Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) won the silver award in all three categories of the Annual Travvy Awards which were held by travAlliancemedia in New York City last night.

The three categories were: The Best Luxury Destination Europe, The Best Luxury Destination Overall, and for the individual award categories, Most Innovative Tourism Executive Europe, Michelle Buttigieg, MTA US Representative.

The awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in the industry and honour travel companies, travel products, travel agencies, travel executives, travel agents and destinations for their outstanding achievement.

The MTA said that over the past year it expanded the number of tour operators that include Malta in their itineraries.

Between January and November 2015 Malta received 24,829 tourists from the USA, an increase of 15.1% or 3,254 more tourists when compared to the same period in 2014. Total Nights spent amounted to 200,821, an increase of 16.8% over the corresponding period in 2014.