Travel and Tourism
The Island is served by most European airlines, apart from Malta’s own national airline Air Malta, British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and Alitalia are joined by low-cost carriers such as Ryanair, Click Air, Germanwings, Centralwings, Norwegian and Easyjet. They link the Island to every part of Europe and the region. Flight times vary from 3 hours to London to 30 minutes to Catania.
In addition, high speed hydrofoil catamarans and car ferries operate on the sea routes between Malta’s main port of Valletta and mainland Italy and Sicily.
Traditionally viewed as a mass market tourist destination, changing economic circumstances meant Malta had to move up further up the value chain and shift away from unsustainable low value tourism to the more lucrative high
value quality-of-life-oriented tourism.
Malta’s Grand Harbour has become one of the most important ports in Europe for the increasing cruise industry, becoming the 7th most visited in Europe.
Medical tourism is a rapidly growing segment and Malta is considered to offer
one of the best health services in the world. A recent WHO study ranked it within the top 5 in the World.
