Alpine Sterling

We may have already made it clear how amazing Malta is as a holiday destination, and if last year’s record 2.3 million visitors are anything to go by, it’s fair to say the island is pretty popular.

But Malta has also been making waves among corporate visitors for a number of years, and in 2017, saw a 17 per cent increase in the number of business travellers. In fact, Malta has long been a favourite among FTSE100 companies who flock to the island time and again to host their conferences, meetings, special events or simply to treat their staff to a well-earned incentive trip or motivate them with team-building activities.

Malta has a network of highly experienced Quality Assured destination management companies, who handle all manner of logistics for such events. Over the years, these DMCs have gained a reputation among the international Meetings Incentives Conference and Events (MICE) industry for professionalism and creativity, and their hard work has not gone unnoticed!

At last week’s M&IT Awards in London, (the Oscars of the UK meetings industry to you and me), Conventions Malta was honoured as the best overseas conventions bureau for the second year running, while Alpine Sterling was awarded a bronze medal in the Best DMC category. Another local DMC, EC Meetings, were finalists.

Speaking to GuideMeMalta, Alpine Sterling managing director Warren Zahra was clearly chuffed with the accolade: “We have been finalists before, but this year winning bronze was a huge surprise for us. It is especially rewarding as it is voted for by the people who work in the industry, and we want to thank our UK representatives DMC Advantage for being excellent partners for us in the past three years.”

Alpine Sterling has been at the forefront of Malta’s travel industry for almost half a century, but the company’s work ethic has remained unchanged. “The way we relate to our customers remains simply to deliver a consistently good service,” Warren explains. “We have a strong team, some of whom have been with the company for 20 years, and whether we are catering for an event with 10 people or 2,000 guests, each event is given the same importance.”

The company has handled events for major international companies from a wide spectrum of industries, as well as high-end cultural special interest groups from the fields of music, sports, military history and religion to name but a few. And each event, be it a conference or a gala dinner, is unique, taking the DMC’s creativity and skills to a new level.

In his long career at Alpine Sterling, Warren has overseen countless events, but some do stand out: “We once organised a gala dinner for a medical association for 1,800 guests in a quarry with a natural waterfall. We’ve had dinners at Fort St Elmo and even in the moat at Mdina. We’ve also had waiters abseiling down the cliffs at Comino serving champagne to guests as they sailed by on boats near the Blue Lagoon. One of my favourite venues is the Mediterranean Conference Centre, with the two longest halls in Europe which always provide that wow factor.” 

"We’ve had waiters abseiling down the cliffs at Comino serving champagne to guests as they sailed by on boats near the Blue Lagoon."

What makes Malta so special? “Malta has a can-do attitude,” explains Warren, “with a fantastic, professional group of people who excel in what they do, from Conventions Malta to all the DMCs as well as the excellent conference hotels. The fact that English is an official language makes communication easy, and of course, Malta offers a very safe and politically stable environment that promotes continuous growth.”

Over the past two decades, Malta has found its place on the global map as a MICE destination. “One of the best things in my career was seeing Malta’s MICE industry grown from one servicing core markets such as the UK, Germany and France to expanding to Asia, North America, Australia and even South Africa,” continues Warren.

And Nicolas Sancho of Conventions Malta’s UK office echoes this: “This is the second year we have won gold in the M&IT Awards thanks to a hard-working team. But this is also a vote of confidence in the destination itself. Malta may be a small island but it's big on history, big on hospitality and, crucially for busy delegates, easy to get to. Short transfers from the airport to the hotel or conference venue mean packed itineraries are not compromised. Delegates appreciate the state-of-the-art conference centres and top notch accommodation. Coupled with the expertise of Quality Assured DMCs, it’s clearly a winning combination.”