EFL students spend 18.2 bed-nights in Malta as opposed to 8.9 nights of the average tourist.
families and in self-catering apartments. This means that local restaurants, shops and families are benefitting from EFL student visits. In addition, EFL students spend a significant amount of money on leisure activities which include cultural tours, diving, sailing, boat tours and other activities. As the EFL industry has become less concentrated in one area, the demand for transport has also increased significantly. This includes flights, ferry crossings, and taxi and bus services. Indeed transporting English language students has become very important for the unscheduled bus service particularly during the summer months when they do not operate transport services for Maltese school children. Malta has a number of key selling points with which to compete against other European EFL destinations such as the United Kingdom and Ireland. We are fortunate in that Malta is still relatively safe and this is particularly attractive for younger students. Older students are often impressed with Malta’s rich cultural heritage, some of which is totally unique. Of course, our temperate climate is another key selling point for Malta. While some students may look to combine their studies with a varied nightlife, the EFL industry does not regard nightlife as one of its key selling points. In fact most FELTOM member schools make every effort to keep younger students out of the Paceville area. FELTOM has taken the lead in establishing quality assurance standards in the EFL industry on the island. FELTOM’s Accreditation Scheme incorporates its Academic and Student Welfare Codes of Conduct as well as the national minimum standards outlined in Legal Notice 60/96. To ensure that the Scheme remains valid and reflects market demands, the FELTOM Accreditation Scheme is annually reviewed, improved and amended.
Schools are rigorously inspected by our independent team of inspectors once every three years. Furthermore during this three-year accreditation period, schools are expected to conduct their own internal audits to ensure that they maintain their accreditation standards. Where deemed necessary the FELTOM Accreditation Council may carry out spot checks. Should a school wish to use additional premises, these must also meet accreditation standards and be submitted for inspection. Out of the 38 licensed language schools in Malta and Gozo, 15 are accredited by FELTOM. While this may not seem significant, it should noted that FELTOM schools account for around 75 per cent of all EFL student arrivals. Most of the larger more established schools are FELTOM members. FELTOM undertakes a lot of efforts in marketing and promoting Malta. FELTOM regularly advertises in Language Travel Magazine, which is the foremost international publication for the industry. In addition, from time to time we contribute to various other international publications such as El Gazette. More pro-actively, in 2009 FELTOM organised an international EFL industry workshop which attracted over 50 agents from around 28 countries. There were three times as many applications for the event as there were places and unfortunately a number of agents were unable to attend. Following the success of last year’s event, FELTOM will again be holding the EFL industry workshop this September. Visiting agents will have the opportunity of meeting representatives from many of Malta’s language schools as well as visiting some of them. Participants will also be able to experience Malta’s rich cultural heritage and natural beauty during a tour of the island. FELTOM also continues to work with the Malta Tourism Authority to promote Malta as a quality language learning destination and to provide leadership for the industry.
Money / Issue 02 - 31