Institute of Tourism Studies unveils plans for its new campus in SmartCity

Works on the new Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) campus in Smart City, Kalkara have started.

The new campus will provide a quality experience for students, with facilities that will translate into more specialized courses that will prepare future workers for the needs of the tourism industry in Malta and around the world.

When completed, the new campus will welcome 2,500 students, or double the amount it is accepting today. The €60 million project is co-financed by European funds and includes 58 classrooms, three restaurants, three bars and a cafeteria for training, together with 21 specialized laboratories and a library.

The project will also provide facilities for more than 300 staff members, 400 parking spaces together with a hall that can accommodate more than 300 people. Further facilities that will be part of this state-of-the-art campus include: an indoor pool suitable for diving training and a sports centre.

Prime Minister, Robert Abela stated that by investing in quality our country can reach new levels and such an investment is only possible as the economy has registered strong growth and is presenting an economic trend that allows the government to emphasize more the quality of the product and a skilled workforce.

The new campus investment will improve the tourism service and continue to improve the tourist product that Malta offers. It is an investment that sends a strong sign that the government believes in tourism as one of the main pillars of the Maltese economy.

The Prime Minister claimed that while new economic areas are being created, it is essential to keep servicing those areas that provide a good economic return. In fact, by September, 1.8 million tourists have already visited country, spending €1.5 billion on our shores. Investment in tourism is also an important contribution in terms of jobs, with restaurants and hotels creating one out of every five new jobs this year along with an increase of 700 part-time jobs in the same sector.

The Minister for Tourism Clayton Bartolo explained that over the years ITS has worked hard to provide a leap of quality in tourism education. “We believe that the building of this campus will be a strong foundation through which we will continue to encourage more young people to choose hospitality as a major career. Ancillary to the building of this campus, is the birth of a training school within the ITS to provide a boost to the existing demand we have in the industry for training and strengthening the local skills in hotels and restaurants.”

ITS CEO Pierre Fenech reiterated that this investment will provide the opportunity for ITS to continue investing in new and innovative courses. He explained that for the last three years, ITS had a record number of new students and claimed that “we are confident that once we move to our new campus these numbers will increase at a faster rate. We already have commitments from a number of foreign institutions, who want to send their students to continue their studies here in Malta.”

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