**Pilots’ Strike Sparks Fury: MHRA Warns Malta’s Reputation as Reliable Holiday Haven Is on the Line** Valletta – The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) has unleashed a blistering broadside against the latest wave of pilots’ industrial action, warning that every delayed flight is “another crack in Malta’s carefully polished postcard image” just as the…
# Watch: Blue Lagoon gets a digital twin to safeguard its future **Comino’s crown jewel is now immortalised in pixels as well as postcards, after University of Malta researchers created the island nation’s first “digital twin” of the Blue Lagoon. The hyper-real 3-D model – stitched together from 40,000 drone photographs and bathymetric scans –…
Valletta’s narrow baroque streets echoed to a different beat last Saturday morning. Instead of the usual shuffle of cruise-shate maps and selfie sticks, children from the St Dominic community centre handed out free lemon-infused water to passers-by while pensioners in straw hats guided “micro-tours” of hidden courtyards normally bolted behind brass knockers. The pop-up initiative,…
**Watch: Madrid Bar Explosion Injures 21 People – A Stark Reminder for Malta’s Hospitality Scene** A powerful explosion at a popular bar in Madrid’s tourist-heavy La Latina district has left 21 people injured, five of them seriously, after what authorities suspect was a gas leak. The blast, which tore through the two-storey building on Friday…
Valletta’s 16th-century Casa Rocca Piccola has hosted nobility, NATO generals and, last week, a different kind of power-broker: 40 university deans who flew in to witness the official launch of the Mediterranean Academy of Tourism (MAT). The new research-and-training hub, which quietly relocated its headquarters from Barcelona to Malta in January, is already enrolling its…
**Boom Times: 2.2 Million Visitors Choose Malta, Injecting €2 Billion into Island Life** Valletta’s cruise-liner horns haven’t stopped blushing. From January to July, 2.2 million travellers stepped onto Maltese tarmac, gangways and ferry decks—enough to fill the Granaries in Floriana five times over—and left behind €2.02 billion in their sun-baked wake. The figures, released yesterday…
**Why Belize is the New European Dream – And Why Maltese Travellers Are Leading the Charge** By *Hot Malta* Travel Correspondent For decades, Malta’s winter sun-seekers have followed a predictable trail: Tunisia for budget warmth, Egypt for reefs, the Canaries for something more exotic. But scroll through Instagram feeds from Sliema to St Julian’s this…
Blue Lagoon rehabilitation plan consultation to be launched in coming weeks Comino’s postcard-perfect but overcrowded Blue Lagoon is finally getting a long-overdue lifeline. Environment Minister Miriam Dalli confirmed this week that a public consultation on a “comprehensive rehabilitation plan” will open within the next three weeks, kicking off what could be the most radical rethink…
**Poolside brawl injuries did not cause man’s death, medical expert tells court** A medical expert has testified that injuries sustained during a poolside brawl at a popular St Julian’s hotel did not cause the death of a 48-year-old man, shedding new light on a case that has gripped Malta’s summer party scene. The ruling, delivered…
Midnight at Merkanti, and the queue outside Agenda bookshop snakes past the gelato stand and down the cobbled lane. It’s not a new iPhone dropping—it’s Dan Brown’s *Wild Symphony*, the thriller maestro’s first adult novel since 2017, and Valletta is treating it like a festa firework. By 00:01 the first 200 copies are gone, snapped…
Lorenzo Agius brings Hollywood celebs and global icons to Valletta ————————————————————- Valletta’s limestone bastions have seen everything from Ottoman cannon-fire to NATO warships, but last week they bore witness to an invasion of a gentler kind: a flash-mob of A-listers, supermodels and music legends summoned by British-Maltese photographer Lorenzo Agius. In less than 48 hours,…
# From Bondi to Balluta: How a Sydney Shark Attack is Sending Ripples Through Malta’s Summer Plans MALTA — When the Maltese sun is scorching and the sea beckons like a sapphire promise, nothing feels safer than a plunge off Sliema’s rocky shelves or a sunset snorkel at St. Peter’s Pool. Yet, 16,000 kilometres away,…
