SIT

Special Interest Travel, known as SIT, is a destination management company based in Valletta. It plans and runs conferences, incentive trips, leisure group holidays and individual travel programmes across Malta and Gozo, and it works with tour operators, associations, corporate buyers and group leaders from many countries. If you are a UK organiser looking for a local partner who can handle venues, hotels, transport, guides and entertainment on the ground, this is the kind of firm that does it.

The office is in Demajo House on Archbishop Street in the capital. The company dates its travel business to 1977, when Special Interest Travel Ltd was founded within the M. Demajo Group, and it has grown into a full service event and destination management firm. On VisitMalta.co.uk it is listed among the tour operators in Malta.

Who SIT is and where it comes from

The wider group behind SIT, M. Demajo & Co., was founded in 1910 and began in wines and spirits. In 1977 the group launched Special Interest Travel as a conference and incentive specialist and destination management company, and launched The Malta Experience, a historical audio-visual show about the islands. Over the following decades SIT opened representative offices in France, Spain, Italy, Poland, the UK, Paris, Brazil and Germany, and a new website followed in 2021.

Two moments stand out in its record, and both involved high-level international gatherings. SIT was named the designated DMC for Malta's EU Presidency in 2017, and the European Commission chose it to help organise the Our Oceans Conference that year. Since 2009 it has repeatedly received the Quality Assured Seal from the Malta Tourism Authority, which recognises destination management companies for quality, consistency and professionalism. The firm also carries €1 million in general and professional liability cover and expects its suppliers to be properly covered too.

The team is large and international. Managers are 75% women, and staff speak English, Maltese, French, Polish, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin and Japanese fluently, with guides available in many more languages including German, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic and Greek. Dario Guljelmović is General Manager.

Conferences and meetings

Conferences are a core line. SIT handles the whole job for associations and companies: sourcing venues, managing suppliers, arranging conference assistants and coordinating the social programme around the sessions. The team starts with the purpose of the event before discussing numbers, decor or activities, which is a sensible way to scope a programme, and it surveys every client afterwards to check the result.

Venues the firm works with include the GrandMasters Suite at the Hilton Malta and the Westin Dragonara Resort's Dragonara Point Ballroom in St Julian's, the Arena Conference Centre at the InterContinental, the Oracle Conference Centre at the Dolmen Hotel in St Paul's Bay, the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre at Ta' Qali and the Republic Hall at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta. Malta is often called an open-air museum, with some of the oldest known structures in the world scattered across the countryside, and heritage spaces such as village squares, churches, palaces and gardens can also be arranged for private use. Delegates staying in the area around St Julian's can browse our guide to hotels in Sliema and St Julian's, and those based in the capital can start with hotels in Valletta.

Over four decades SIT has negotiated volume purchasing terms with many suppliers, and it expects every vendor partner to match its own standards for transport, team-building activities, tours and special events. Sister companies within the Demajo Group add resources, from conference website design to wines and spirits for a welcome drink and The Malta Experience show for delegates who want the history of the islands.

Incentive trips and team building

Incentives are trips that reward staff or clients, and SIT builds them in Malta and Gozo. The firm designs gala dinners, off-site evenings, boat days and challenges, and good ideas need not be expensive: a simple dinner lit with candles and a white dress code can look striking. Team-building ranges from raft building in a bay to active challenges that suit groups of different sizes, and socially responsible incentive trips are also offered.

The portfolio shows this in practice: a gala dinner staged beside a floodlit walled city, a social event for 130 delegates from across Europe, and large public events in 2023 such as Europride in Valletta and a summer of concerts. A UK organiser who wants to see what a day on the water might look like can read our guide to the Blue Lagoon at Comino, a typical stop for boat-based programmes, and the Gozo guide for island add-ons.

Leisure groups and special interest travel

For leisure groups SIT offers a long list of themed programmes: cultural tours with licensed guides, pilgrimage groups, food and wine tours, sports tours, English language school stays, diving, sailing, cruises, agritourism, walking tours, nightlife and adventure activities by jeep, quad, Segway and bike. Malta's churches number more than 360 across the islands, which makes pilgrimages a natural fit, and a cultural programme will usually take in our guide to Valletta, the medieval city described in our Mdina guide, and sites such as St John's Co-Cathedral.

The firm runs dedicated French, Chinese and Japanese leisure divisions, with local-language staff in each, as well as a luxury travel desk and a team for individual travellers. Cruise passengers can also be catered for with tailor-made one-day programmes.

The Chinese division offers tailor-made private groups, leisure stays, English language courses, special itineraries and coaches, with vehicles from five seats up to 53 seats. The Japanese team arranges group, student, outdoor and activity travel with Japanese-speaking staff. The French division builds cultural, hiking, pilgrimage and works council programmes, and includes Gozo by jeep and speed boat, farm visits and wine tastings. Hiking suits autumn, winter and spring, when the climate is mild and the coast offers more than 250 km of paths and views. For background on the Order that shaped the capital, see our guide to the Knights of Malta.

Individual travellers and luxury

Although SIT is best known for groups, it also looks after individual travellers, known in the trade as FITs, through a separate set-up created in 2013 for the individual market. Its recap of 2023 reports multiple FITs, more than 175 leisure groups and over 30 conference and incentive groups handled in the year.

A luxury travel desk builds bespoke itineraries for higher-spending clients. The firm also keeps its eye on new openings, such as the DoubleTree by Hilton in St Paul's Bay and Malta's Michelin-starred restaurants, so itineraries stay current. If you are comparing options for your own trip, our pages on things to do in Malta and flights to Malta from the UK are good starting points.

Getting in touch

SIT works from 103 Demajo House on Archbishop Street in Valletta, and staff are organised by division: conferences and incentives, French leisure, Chinese and Japanese travel, group leisure, and individual and luxury travel. The website does not publish fees, since programmes are priced to the brief.

When you contact the firm, say what type of group you have, how many people, your dates and the kind of experience you want. Use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to the SIT team.