Some 82,000 students studied English in Malta last year, up from nearly 70,000 language students in 2011 – an 18.2% rise.

“Fears that demand for Malta is slowing down are completely unfounded”

Alex Fenech, former president of FELTOM and general manager of the newly opened ACE English school, said news of the rise came “as no surprise whatsoever”.

“Local language schools, the Malta tourism authority and the EFL Monitoring Board have been working very hard to promote Malta as an ELT destination offering quality english language courses together with Malta’s history, culture, entertainment and obviously weather,” he told The PIE News.

Malta’s status as an EFL hub has grown steadily in recent years, with student arrivals rising by an average 10% per year in the last decade. The vast majority of students come from Europe – Italy, Germany, Russia, France and Spain being the top markets – leading some to warn that economic problems in some countries would impact business.

An ALTO survey in late 2012 also suggested that schools in Malta were among the most concerned in Europe about the impact of the eurozone crisis. That said, some 90% said they expected growth in Q1 2013 – higher than in any other European country.

Fenech, whose school opened earlier this year, said he was optimistic too. He said there had been a big rise in non-EU student weeks in 2012 for long-term courses in the shoulder and winter months—namely from Russia, Turkey, Colombia, Brazil and Korea. National Office of Statistics data also shows that the biggest rise in interest in 2012 came not from Europe but Africa.

He conceded 2013 could see falls from key markets such as Italy and Spain but said that the problem was “situational”.

“Fears that demand for Malta is slowing down are completely unfounded. 2013 could be a difficult year…but I am sure that local language schools will manage to attract new business to fully or partially recover the lost business.”