We might be blessed with an impressive 7,000 years of rich history, excellent weather all year-round, country, golden sands and blue waves, and one of the Mediterranean’s most stunning coasts and landscapes, but the reality is that we, as a country, need to shout loud to be heard.

You will be amazed when you realise how many people, even from neighbouring countries, have never heard of, let alone been to Malta. We can be easily brushed aside or overlooked. 

This is challenging, but it also means there is untapped potential.

From a tourism point of view, there is an increasing urgency to penetrate more markets, especially in Asia, North America and Africa, where Malta is still virtually unknown, to target more business travellers who typically, spend twice as much, per trip, as leisure visitors. This is also in line with aiming towards higher-value segments and to also combat the negative impacts of seasonality.

Strengthening and widening the Malta umbrella brand, with clear value propositions to target segments and source markets, is key to this. Our people at the Malta Tourism Authority do an excellent job in marketing the island to the outside world and the effectiveness of their campaigning is bearing fruit, testimony to which is not only the overall increase in arrivals, but also the penetration in non-traditional markets, such as the US, which for the first time has made it to our top 10 markets.

All this is good, but our ambitions are higher. We see tourism not as a standalone but as an enabler to our economy. The success being registered in our economic growth and the improvements to our overall product, now merit a quality leap in the way Malta is projected to the outside world.

Being a small country, achieving and marketing that quality leap on our own, is generally not feasible or will only get us modest results.

To this effect, we were proud to announce that the Tourism Ministry and the Malta Tourism Authority have reached a three-year commercial agreement with Manchester United Football Club, which will see Malta become the official destination partner of the English Premier League giants.

This will be the biggest ever marketing investment undertaken by the Maltese government

This is the biggest ever marketing investment undertaken by the Maltese government and the first of such nature and magnitude. It is a very bold move by government, in sending a strong signal across the world, that Malta aims for the best.

Partnering with such a strong brand should bring about several add-on benefits, especially in terms of improved customer recognition to Visitmalta, in achieving that competitive edge in the market, and in enhancing our overall credibility.

The Manchester United brand has been identified as a strong enabler to this effect.

Through discussions we had with the club since January of this year, we could immediately realise that the Manchester United brand is incredibly strong.

Despite the fact that the club’s on-pitch performances of late leave a lot to be desired – to say the least – the club commands over 1.1 billion followers and an engaged TV audience of 3.5 billion per year, over 200 territories, making it the most popular sports team on the planet. Its popularity is also significantly strong – and rising – not only in Europe, but notably in Asia, Africa and North America – which are markets where Visitmalta intends to aggressively attack.

Of notable importance is that the club commands a very strong position with millennials while its fan base also has a high propensity for travel and their average income is generally above global average.

Above all, Manchester United proved to us that they deliver on brand awareness while existent and past partners have experienced significant growth in their revenues, making this a superior return on investment over traditional advertisement.

Through this partnership, Visitmalta and Manchester United will naturally encourage the club’s millions of fans around the world to experience our vibrant, young, exciting and beautiful country.

The Visitmalta brand will get strong exposure during all Manchester United home matches and on the club’s digital marketing channels, social and printed media, and the club’s mobile app, among a number of initiatives and associated spinoffs. The club commands a very strong presence on social media with over 150 million social connections across 10 platforms worldwide. It is estimated that the club gets a mention every seven seconds in online news.

We will naturally also acquire the IP rights and association for the use of designations and the Manchester United crest, images and footage in promotional materials.

It naturally helps that Malta and Manchester United have a close longstanding relationship. It is also very fitting that this partnership comes at a time when the Manchester United Supporters Club Malta, the oldest active in the world, is celebrating its 60th anniversary and I would like to thank them for their support in assisting us through their respective channels.

Just like the Theatre of Dreams, we believe Malta is indeed a dream destination and through this exciting and innovative partnership, we believe we can push boundaries, reach out to new territories and put Malta furthermore on the map to establish it as the number one destination to visit.

Ronald Mizzi is Permanent Secretary at the Tourism Ministry.