The Mediterranean ’s Best-Kept Secret!
Some secrets are exciting, filling your heart and your mind with the feel-good factor. When the secret is a melting-pot of cultures and peoples, words and wisdom, history and tradition…..you just have to kiss and tell!
Indeed, that is the driving force behind the new campaign being launched by the Malta Tourism Authority in its new vision for promoting Malta overseas.
"The Mediterranean 's best kept secret", is not just a slogan. It is not just the truth, either – but a combination of both that is set to create a new awareness of our Jewel in the Mediterranean Republic .
There is synergy from different factors flowing seamlessly together to create a perfect blend of savvy, bling, and all the necessary customer care that will gear the whole package towards a steady rise in the number of tourist arrivals not merely in High Season, but throughout the whole year.
Malta is not just sun, sea and sand. It is history and culture, a unique Navel of the World where one finds both the oldest free-standing monuments on the planet, but also the newest, sharpest, arts and culture. In between these two extremes lies the rich heritage we have inherited and made ours throughout the centuries.
Malta has been inhabited since around 5200 BC, when the Neolithic culture was at its zenith. The people the cultural period of the Stone Age beginning around 10,000 BC, left behind them Megalithic structures and polished stone implements.
Our pre-historic megalithic (“large stones”) structures actually predate the Giza pyramids by a millennium.
Subsequently, Malta became a colony of the Phoenicians, the ancient maritime country of southwest Asia (nowadays roughly Syria and Lebanon ). This people gave us its alphabet, which was based on symbols for sounds rather than hieroglyphics (Egyptian-style) or cuneiform (Sumerian or Persian).
The Romans overcame Carthage at the end of the Third Punic war, and colonised Malta . We became a self-governing Municipium, the second highest class of Ancient Roman cities, inferior in status only to the colonia, and a Foederata Civitas.
Malta has the ultimate accolade of being mentioned in the Bible because during this period, Paul of Tarsus was shipwrecked here, in AD 60.
Between the 4th and 9th century, Malta was part of the Byzantium Empire. Malta was subjugated by the Arabs in AD 879 after being sacked by the Vandals.
The Arabs introduced cotton, a staple commodity at the time, and also citrus fruits. They set up irrigation systems and influenced our vernacular, which has both Romance and Semitic roots.
From 1091, there followed a succession of rulers – the Normans , the Angevins, the Hohenstaufens, and the Aragonese. These established Maltese nobility was established; some titles are still extant today. The oldest traceable one is “Barons of Djar il-Bniet and Buqana”.
Came 1530, Spain gave our Islands as a gift to the Order of Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, who had been driven out of Rhodes by the Ottoman Empire in 1522. The 1565 Great Siege is a turbulent period in Maltese History, but it was the ball that started the World Heritage City of Valletta rolling.
Napoleon Bonaparte captured Malta , en route to his Egyptian Expedition in 1798. He had wilily asked for a safe harbour and supplies – and once inside the fortifications of Valletta , turned the tables against his hosts.
Because of circumstances obtaining, Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim capitulated. Napoleon looted our treasures at his convenience. The French were unpopular during their stay; the Maltese conspired with Great Britain , and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the resultant blockade meant that the French were isolated.
The year was 1800, and General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois had no choice but to surrender. Malta became a British protectorate; than an Independent Nation, and later a Republic. In 2004 we entered the European Union.
So much, then, for our chequered history – but as regards the geography, visitors would be well advised to explore it themselves…. over several visits.
The new MTA campaign will make the best of all this, amalgamating the sensuous, luxurious mix of who we are, what we stand for, and what we have to offer, and redresses the balance for those who may have “heard” of Malta , but do not “know” it.
The traditional hospitality, our standard of living, our laid-back attitude and heritage and diversity will create a scintillatingly attractive, irresistible package for a romantic, emotional, zingy destination.
International Living gave Malta its top spot in the Climate Category of our 2007 Quality of Life Index. Out of the 193 countries considered, Malta , with its average of 5.2 hours of sunshine a day Malta was voted as having “the best climate in the world”.
Malta can stand on its own against much larger competing destinations. This is amply witnessed by the print media and Internet campaign being wielded.
The far-reaching campaign, in association with Air Malta, is set to reach out also to airlines operating to and from Malta, and will flourish in strategic European markets and even further afield, in other continents.