Culture, education, tourism and sport

in competitions. It is envasiged that if the pandemic is behind us by 2023, Malta will host two major events, the Games of Small Euroopean natuions and the UEFA Under 19’s which will boast the Sports Tourism both in spectators and in participants.

Diving is a well-established tourism segment for Malta, having a share of approximately 6% of the total tourist flows into the country. Football training camps, athletics and a host of other events already attract varying quantities of visitors to Malta and some of these activities possess strong prospects for growth in the near future. The Central Region contributes continouslytowards this growth.

The organisation of events also contributes to attracting sports tourists to the destination. Every year, Malta hosts a number of international sport events including the 'Middle Sea Race' held annually in October and the ‘Malta Marathon’. Held every year in late February or early March, this race attracts a number of international competitors and approximately 1,400 entrants participate.

The Malta Marathon held its first edition 41 years ago, finishing by the coastline in Sliema, the participating athletes run through the streets of other cities of the Central Region such as Ta’ Xbiex and Gżira. During the past two years the Malta Marathon was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the organisers have targeted the 6th March for the 2022 as the date of the first postpandemic marathon.

Another event which attracts Sport Tourism to Malta is the 93 km Malta to Sicily, International Swimming Relay Race which starts from San Ġiljan to Modica and back. This event attracts swimmers as far as down under, Australia.

As already mentioned, tourism is a major industry to the economy of Malta and its Central Region because of its strategic position in the center of the Mediterranean Sea. Coastal tourism is another great promoter of the Maltese tourist activity, backing a new modality known as Beach Plus committed to combining the beach with other activity such as Surfing and Sailing which in the Central Region is very popular with other products of natural tourism.

Sport finance in the region and volunteering

The finance of sport in the Central Region is part of a financing programme which is managed on a national level by SportMalta, which is the Council of Sport in Malta. Through various aspects, such as the commercialization of sport, a Good Causes Fund tax rebates to parents whose children under the age of 16 practice sport in our academies and nurseries besides grants distributed from government or the Malta Olympic Committee. On the other hand, clubs who are solely managed by volunteers depend mainly on sponsors.

Voluntary entities manage about 80% of the sport activity in the central region of the Maltese islands. Voluntary entities are those entities that, are constituted with legal personality and non-profit status, develop voluntary action programmes in sport and have are funded through the funding of its volunteers. In all regions in Malta sport is managed by volunteers.

Recently the Government passed a legislation with good intentions to help clubs and associations generate more financial power through the commercialization of the club.

Sports organisations should be the net beneficiaries of the new legislation, which will provide them with an opportunity to create new income streams that up to now has not been possible. The proposed legislation aims to support sports organisations in being financially self-sufficient and less dependent on donors or sponsors.

Sports organisations will have to run their own administration in a professional manner in order to achieve the targets set by this legislation. This will strengthen the sporting sector in general, as more efficient, and expert organisations will lead to the establishment of good practice in the development of sporting disciplines within the organisation. Another outcome is that increased income will translate into an investment of higher quality facilities and equipment, and in first-rate coaches. All of these conditions will enable better training of athletes from the grassroots to elite levels in a more professional environment. Mainly all locations in our region are trying tom include this legislation in tkeir sport clubs, with the football club of Sliema Wanderers are in thr forefront to do so.

All this is managed under the auspices of SportMalta who are determined to make difference. The unyielding principles guiding the SportMalta are integrity,

transparency and accountability. Irrelevant of any changes in the environment within which SportMalta operates, its council will remain loyal to these values.