ABSTRACT

Malta is the smallest EU Member State with a population of 400,000. 1 Its economy has the highest level of reliance on Travel & Tourism (T&T) among EU countries as tourism accounts for 26.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 31.9 per cent of employment (World Economic Forum 2007). For its tourism intake, Malta competes with better resourced EU countries such as Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, as well as with other non-EU Mediterranean countries like Tunisia, Turkey and Morocco which have significantly lower per capita income and consequently lower cost. Cyprus is the closest country which compares with Malta in terms of size, accessibility, level of economic activity and the importance of T&T to the overall economy 2 .