Malta’s official reopening to tourism in June attracts just over 190,500 visitors through MIA

With Malta officially reopening to international tourism on 1st June, accompanied by a nationwide effort to promote the country as a safe and friendly summer holiday destination, Malta International Airport (MIA) has released official figures providing an overview of how many inbound travellers came in June via the airport.

MIA reported welcoming 190,505 passengers by the end of June 2021, marking an improvement over the traffic handled in the previous months.

Despite the increased activity, the June figures translate into a drop of 73.6 per cent compared to June 2019.

Last month’s top drivers of passenger traffic, MIA noted, were Italy, Germany, France, Poland and Spain. It added that the Spanish market made a comeback among MIA’s five most popular destinations following the resumption of flights to Valencia and Seville last month.

“Interestingly, a travel sentiment survey conducted by the European Travel Commission in May 2021 revealed that surveyed Europeans who were planning to travel in summer showed a preference for Southern European destinations including Spain, Italy, France, and Greece”, MIA said in a statement.

 In addition, Malta was added to the UK’s Green list towards the end of June, meaning the market did not feature among the top five drivers of traffic, however it did move up one place from May to rank sixth among the airport’s top markets.