Summer holiday arrivals on the sunshine island of Malta are set to reverse the decline of recent years after the introduction of new routes from the island's core UK market, and recent news suggests that other European airlines could soon be landing at Malta Airport, bringing with them a new set of tourists.

The Spanish airline, ClickAir, it was thought had hoped to operate a once a week return service from Barcelona Airport to Malta, but the Maltese authorities persuaded them to increase this to a twice weekly service.

It's an interesting development for Malta, which traditionally has relied on the UK market for tourism.

Visitor numbers have declined in recent years, although signs are that this year could see a pick up from the UK as low cost airlines start to deliver passengers on the island.

Tourists arriving from new markets as well as the core UK one could see a good improvement in holiday and hotel bookings in the years ahead.

As British holiday arrivals have dropped, some of the slack has been taken up by tourists from Italy, reducing the overall impact of less tourists. St Julian's seems to be a particularly favoured area of the Italian visitors.

New Arrivals

Ryanair's new routes from London and Dublin to Malta have proved a success both for the airline and for the island since the launch in November of their Luton flights. Initial estimates of an extra 80,000 tourists due to Ryanair might be much lower than the true figure when results are published. Reports suggest that Ryanair might be considering further flights to Malta from different destinations. Whether this will be from the UK or elsewhere isn't clear yet.

Air Malta, the island's national airline, has run a successful campaign to sell seats, and has opened a new route from the North-West of England, flying from Liverpool's John Lennon Airport.

With the arrival of more holidaymakers, the possibility of increased property sales to overseas buyers becomes more of a reality as well, so the real estate sector as well as the holiday market is keeping a keen eye on arrival figures for the months ahead.

Some UK overseas property agencies who deal with property in Malta think that property prices could rise in 2007.

'With lower fares, Malta becomes a destination viable for 3 and 4 days trips a few times a year from the UK, and that will attract buyers to look at Malta in the same way they do France and Spain when considering where to buy a holiday home abroad. The weather in Malta and low fares could be a magnet for buyers', commented one recently,

There is a warning however from some that property prices on the island might not necessarily escalate in the same way that regions of France have seen when low cost airlines have started flying to their districts.