Leslie Vella

Leslie Vella was born in Floriana, Malta in 1964 and graduated from the University of Malta with a BA (Hons) in Business Management in 1988.

He can boast of a 43-year career in tourism with the Malta Tourism Authority where he has occupied various senior management positions in the organisation and is currently Deputy CEO and Chief Officer Strategic Development.  His major expertise is in the fields of Policy, Strategy, Tourism Research and Planning.

Leslie has also been very active on the international front with a 17-year stint as Chair of the European Travel Commission’s (ETC) Market Intelligence Group between 1997 and 2014 and also served as ETC’s Vice President between 2016 and 2017.  He is currently Malta’s Focal Point to the UNWTO.

In 1999 he co-authored a study on “The Economic Impact of Tourism in Malta”, and in 2015 was the main drafter of Malta’s National Tourism Policy document covering the period 2015-2020.  More recently he drafted Malta’s Tourism Strategy and Recovery Plan for the period 2021-2030 and is currently leading the Strategic Review process to update the Strategy to 2035.  Amongst his duties at the Malta Tourism Authority, he currently manages the setup responsible for executing Malta’s Airline Route Development Strategy.  He is also Managing Director of the recently launched Malta Tourism Observatory.