United Travel Malta

This week United Travel, together with the Malta Tourism Authority, Emirates and Hilton Malta, hosted an educational  familiarisation trip for eight MICE travel managers and event management companies. Despite the group only being here for just four nights we wanted to try and showcase as much of the Maltese Islands as we could fit into the limited time. The group visited a number of hotels and venues, including the Mediterranean Conference Centre, the Grand Hotel Excelsior, Smart City, Palazzo Parisio, Limestone Heritage, Palazzo Depiro and Xara Palace amongst others. However, their favourite activities were the following:  A Visit to a Gozitan Farm During a visit to Gozo, the group visited Rikardu's Farm - a typical Gozitan farm which is well-known for their delicious goats cheese known by the locals as Gbejna  meaning "cheeselet". On the farm they were introduced to the farm's herd of goats and even had the opportunity to milk the goats themselves! ...

Last Wednesday we were invited to an award's ceremony to receive a Quality Assured Seal from the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA). This seal was officially launched in 2008 with the aim to recognise those destination management companies (DMCs) that are committed to high levels of quality and professionalism. In order to achieve the seal, we had to fulfil a comprehensive set of criteria that were designed to ensure the highest quality in event and destination management.  Some of the requirements that we had to adhere to in order to achieve the seal include having a minimum of €1,000,000 general liability insurance cover and making sure that all our key suppliers have adequate insurance coverage. The Quality Assured Monitoring Committee also checked our finances in order to verify that we are a financially sound company. A full list of all the criteria that we needed fulfil can be found on the MTA website by clicking here . This seal is also available for tourist attractions and...

The Ministry for Tourism and the Malta Tourism Authority will once again join forces to organise the 14th edition of the Malta International Fireworks Festival. The festival forms part of the anniversary celebrations of Malta's accession to the European Union and the colourful spectacle annually attracts thousands of locals and tourists alike. Following the positive feedback received after last year's edition, this year's events shall once again commence in the charming fishing village of Marsaxlokk on Saturday 25th April 2015. The event will continue on Thursday, 30th April against the magnificent and unique back drop that is Valletta's Grand Harbour. The closing display, which will consist of a Pyromusical show, will be held on Saturday, 02nd May and can be viewed from the tourist hub of Bugibba. The festival has rightfully earned the title of "International" as it has attracted pyrotechnic companies from Malta as well as from further afield. The compet...

The lovely little rock that we like to call home has featured on two very different ranking lists in the past week that make me feel proud to say I live in Malta. The first list Malta featured in was in Beatport's list of " 13 Mind-Blowing Festival Destinations You’ll Never Want to Leave ". This list has been put together by the Beatportal staff and includes a list of what they claim are the "wildest locales around the world". The festivals that feature in their lists have line-ups that would please any festival goer, but each festival destination has its own original element that makes them different from all the others in the list and includes countries as different as Japan, Switzerland and Bulgaria.  Malta placed in 9th place and features in this list with Annie Mac's first edition of Lost & Found, a festival that will be taking place in Malta over the Easter weekend (03rd - 05th April 2015). According to the event's official website ...

First of all a Happy New Year to all reading this! We've been a little bit busy lately, and the Christmas Season didn't help us very much, so we feel very ashamed to say that we neglected our blog for a couple of months... However, we've made a new year’s resolution to avoid using the "we've been busy" excuse and try to keep it up to date as much as possible. Since it's Winter, and the beaches in Malta aren't really what families with kids are dreaming of right now, we decided to put together a list of things that families can do when visiting Malta. The list is never ending, so we chose a few of our favourite activities... THE MALTA NATIONAL AQUARIUM The Malta National Aquarium is one of the leading visitor attractions in Malta. Located in one of Malta’s most picturesque promenades, the aquarium is home to an array of over a hundred different species of fish including sharks, rays, seahorses and eels, spread over approximately 20,000 s...

The winter season started with a bang for us at United Travel as we’ve been very busy travelling around the world hosting meeting forums and attending Trade Fairs. Our first trip came in mid-October, when I flew to Tenerife to help the Questex-McLean Events team with the onsite operations of HOTEC EU. This was the 16 th edition of the event that brings together leading hotel purchasing, operations and technical directors, as well as interior and architectural designers to meet with the key leading domestic and international suppliers to participate in a series of one-on-one meetings over two dedicated business days. The chosen destination for this event was the beautiful Ritz Carlton Abama Resort in Tenerife, and the beautiful warm weather really helped in making sure everyone had an event to remember. The event started with a Welcome Dinner by the pool, and after the first day of meetings, everyone was treated to a sunset dinner at the resort’s own beach club! Next up Iain ...

As 2014 comes to an end, the lists of bests start to take shape. The travel industry is no exception and Lonely Planet, everyone's favourite travel guide publisher, has just published a list of what they deem to be the best 10 Cities to visit in 2015. According to them, the best city in the world to visit is Washington DC, and at number 10 is Toronto. Right in the middle of the list, coming in at number 5 is Malta's very own capital city, Valletta. Considering the that two of the world's biggest capital cities start and finish the list, I think this is a big feat in itself. Thanks to Lonely Planet's list, we were today also reminded that Valletta will next year celebrate it's 450th anniversary!  According to Lonely Planet's digital editorial director, making this list is "the one time each year that Lonely Planet applies it's collective brainpower to pick recommendations and rank their recommendations." In order to make the list, the chosen ci...