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provide a high-quality experience, their size limit the scale of events the country can host. These venues generally hit capacities of around 1,500 delegates.
“ We can’ t confidently host conferences of around 3,000 people,” he says.
“ The time has come to have a dedicated conference and expo space because the business is there.”
Meanwhile, the proposed Pembroke site being on the doorstep of a large open space slated to become a national park could also prove to be a boon and attract conferences, he adds.
“ People get tired of being stuck inside, so having a nice outdoor area is a positive – and that’ s always been Malta’ s selling point: its weather and proximity to the sea.”
Echoing Farrugia, he says Pembroke could prove positive in terms of traffic, noting that while delegates would still require transport from hotels in St Julian’ s,“ at least it’ s close by”.
Gianni Zammit, co-founder and director of events provider JUGS Malta, described conferencing as a“ phenomenal earner” for Malta, noting that tourism data showed that conference delegates tended to be higher-spending visitors.
Agreeing that Malta lacks a range of venues able to cater for larger conferences, Zammit says a new conference centre would ideally be modular, configurable for various layouts serving up to thousands of delegates.
“ There is a need, and the [ hotel ] beds are available now,” he says.
Zammit stressed that any new venue should be purpose-built, with features such as stepless loading bays, sufficient hanging points for technical equipment such as PA speakers, heavy goods lifts and fully-equipped kitchen facilities in line with other major venues.
Echoing forecasts of improved traffic, he champions Pembroke’ s proximity to the‘ golden mile’ – referring to St Julian’ s offerings of five-star hotels.
“ Where Malta used to be attractive for transport, with most places on the island accessible within 30 minutes, we’ re
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now losing up to two hours in conference programmes due to traffic,” he says.
The [ existing ] MFCC is of the right size to accommodate expos, but its roof can make speeches difficult to hear in rainy conditions.
Zammit believes an ideal conference venue would also allow for larger expo events that could struggle to be accommodated at the country’ s existing convention centre.
“ The MFCC is great to work in but has some drawbacks – in hot weather it needs significant air conditioning, while rain on the marquee can make a lot of noise during speeches,” he notes.
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It’ s about logistics Federated Association of Travel and Tourism Agents( FATTA) president Iain Tonna agrees with the need for a new convention centre:“ We need to put our money where our mouth is – it needs to be world class.”
Stressing the need for a“ fullyfledged” convention centre, he said that Ta’ Qali’ s MFCC had been a“ temporary fix”, with its size and construction meaning it was cold in the winter and susceptible to noise from wind and rain.
“ We have to accept that we’ re in competition with places that have fullyfledged conference centres,” he said.
He echoed praise of Pembroke’ s proximity to St Julian’ s hotels, noting that conferences of around 250 people held in venues like the MCC typically required at least five buses to transport
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Above: Malta ' s Mediterranean Conference Centre |
while in Pembroke, five buses operating in shuttle service could feasibly take up to 1,000 people.“ It’ s about logistics,” he stresses. The discussion follows the government last year telling Times of Malta it was planning to develop a large convention centre on the site of the Malta Fairs and Convention Centre( MFCC).
The plans emerged after the prime minister pledged to secure a more suitable venue for future editions of the SiGMA conference after it was revealed that the flagship gaming conference was moving to Milan.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister acknowledged that while the country“ needs a stateof-the-art convention centre”, the Pembroke site appears to be too limited in size to accommodate a convention centre of this scale.
The spokesperson noted that a significant portion of the area lies within a Natura 2000 site – a network of protected environments across the EU. He said the government“ remains committed to an open and responsible evaluation process”.
Meanwhile, Pembroke mayor Kaylon Zammit said that while he recognised that a high-end convention centre could attract valuable events, he does not believe the site in question is suitable.
“ Any proposal would, of course, need to be carefully evaluated, but the council’ s concern would definitely be that locating such a project within Pembroke could place undue strain on the locality.”
While everyone Times of Malta spoke to agreed that a new state-of-the-art conference centre would be a boon for the country, it seemingly remains, at least for now, destined for Ta’ Qali. n
n Link to James Cummings’ full article: https:// timesofmalta. com / article / conventioncentre-pembroke-industry-authoritiesdisagree. 1126541
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