Malta is seeking to benefit from a surge in late travel bookings from the UK as downpours cut the British summer short and a recovery of the sterling makes overseas travel more attractive.

After saying in April that the country was "odds-on for a barbecue summer", the UK Met Office revised its forecast at the end of July and predicted near or above average rainfall across the UK for the rest of the summer.

But UK sun lovers, no longer constrained by such unfavourable currency movements as a short while ago, are now better able to make good their escape abroad. Sterling has risen about 11 percent against the euro since the start of the year.

Josef Formosa Gauci, chief executive of the Malta Tourism Authority, said that while Malta usually stopped its advertising campaign in May, it had this year kept up its campaign because of the surge in late bookings.

In the UK, Malta had a TV advertising campaign in June and July followed by a print campaign in the past few weeks.

Updates from travel firms Thomas Cook and TUI Travel last week showed a pick-up in demand since May for summer 2009 bookings from UK and Northern European customers, helped by the miserable weather.

"No doubt, if it had been a very hot summer, maybe the booking profile would have looked a little bit different and a little worse for them," said Greg Johnson, analyst at Shore Capital.

Mr Formosa Gauci said the surge in late bookings was also being seen in other markets and the MTA had therefore also kept up its marketing and advertising campaigns in France, Germany and Italy.

In Paris, he said, an extensive advertising campaign was held in the middle of July.