Gulli — Turn this year's tourists into next year's

What this means for Malta

The verified facts first. Then the prize.

We don't need the whole island — just a sliver of its transactions. Here's what the research actually supports.

~4.0M

inbound tourists / year ✅

Malta drew roughly 4.0M inbound tourists in full-year 2025 — the size of the pool we could reach. We're not claiming all of them; it's the starting number. (NSO Malta, 2025)

€3.9B

total visitor spend / year ✅

Total inbound tourist expenditure was about €3.9B — roughly €970 per trip across ~4M visitors. The real money is in what they do each day in the destination , and that's what Feather sits next to. (NSO Malta, 2025)

~6 nights

average stay — UK & Italy lead ✅

Average stay ran 5.6–6.8 nights month to month (~6 overall). The UK and Italy are the top source markets — both repeat-heavy, exactly the audience a come-back loop is built for. (NSO Malta, 2025)

20–30%

commission foreign platforms take ✅

When a tour is booked online, platforms like Viator and GetYourGuide take 20–30% — money that leaves Malta. Only ~37% of experiences are booked online (the rest is offline / last-minute), a wide-open gap that booking at the dinner table fills. Feather takes far less, so much more stays with the local operator. (Arival–Phocuswright; NSO Malta)

Feather's reach 🟡 modeled

~3,000 catering venues. A ~1,000-venue rollout in the tourist core at a 10–30% scan rate.

1.8–5.5M

menu scans a year — the engagement base Feather can market to.

No Malta QR-menu figure exists, so this is modeled from benchmarks: table scan rates run ~8–15% (higher for tourist / multilingual menus). ~3,000 catering venues; a ~1,000-venue rollout in the tourist core × ~50 covers/day → ~1.8M scans at 10%, up to ~5.5M at 30%. The pilot measures the real rate.

The money leaving the island 🟡 modeled

Malta's experiences market ≈ €400–600M booked a year. ~37% goes online — and foreign platforms take 20–30% of that.

≈ €20–46M

estimated commission leaving the island each year. Every booking on Feather keeps that local.

No public source sizes Malta's experiences market in euros, so we model it from spend: ~€400–600M of the €3.9B total is bookable tours & activities; ~37% books online; foreign platforms take 20–30% of that → roughly €20–46M of commission leaving the island annually (central ≈ €46M; conservative floor ≈ €20M). The pilot replaces the model with a real figure.

If 1% stay one extra day 🟡 modeled

1% of ~4M visitors = ~40,000 extra nights × ~€90 spent in-destination.

≈ €3.6M

extra local spend — before beds & tourist tax.

If in-trip pushes convince just 1% of ~4M visitors to stay one more day, that's ~40,000 extra nights. At a modeled ~€90/day in-destination spend (net of accommodation, derived from ~€970/trip over ~6 nights), that alone is ~€3.6M — before the extra hotel night and tourist tax on top.

The bigger prize

First-party data

Today the destination can't see who visits, where they go, what they spend, or what drove a booking — that sits with the OTAs, Google & the airlines. Feather and Gulli make every transaction the destination's own.

The destination has aggregate, lagged survey numbers — but no visitor-level data it owns: real origin, in-destination movement, category spend, which attractions fill, what a campaign actually produced, and who returns. That's the asset money can't buy elsewhere — and the strongest reason for the MTA to back the pilot.

✅ verified from NSO Malta inbound-tourism releases, 2025; commission band per Arival–Phocuswright. 🟡 modeled estimates — no public source sizes Malta's local activities market in euros, so these are order-of-magnitude, not measured. That gap is the pitch: the pilot replaces the model with real data.

In detail

What everyone gets — and how.

The full breakdown, party by party. Tap any ⓘ to see how that benefit actually works.

🧳

Tourist / diner

the spark

Order easily — menu in their own language

The QR opens a menu auto-translated into the visitor's language — no app, no download.

Book attractions & events at the table

Bookable listings sit inside the menu; they reserve and pay without leaving for a foreign site.

Relevant in-trip offers

Time-based pushes (e.g. an 8-hour window) surface tonight's concert or a nearby tour.

Discovers more of the region

An Explore section and pushes promote spots beyond the centre — Gozo, Comino, the south.

A living-memory souvenir

They scan or tap the Gulli magnet and their uploaded trip photos play back as a living memory.

An easy, meaningful gift to share

One digital share sends the memory to family or close friends back home.

🍽️

Restaurant

earns 4 ways + insight

Free smart QR menu + admin panel

Echo sets up the digital menu and a dashboard at no cost; staff edit items and prices anytime.

Booking commission on what's booked

When a diner books an attraction or event in the menu, the venue takes a share of the commission.

Magnet income — €4 per unit

Each €12 magnet sold at the table returns €4 to the restaurant (the €12 splits €4 / €4 / €4).

Sells supplier marketing space (100% Y1)

The venue sells placement slots inside its own menu to its suppliers (drinks, brands) and keeps all of it in Year 1.

Deep venue insights / analytics

The dashboard shows what diners view, order and book — first-party analytics the venue never had.

The meal — with more reasons to return

Its normal revenue, now paired with magnets and bookings that bring guests back.

🤵

Waiter

activation engine

€4 per magnet sold

The waiter is paid €4 for every magnet they help sell — the incentive that drives activation.

A cut of bookings made on his shift

When a guest at the waiter's table books an attraction during the shift, the waiter earns a share too.

🏷️

Supplier / brand

point of decision

Point-of-decision marketing to diners

Brands place offers inside the live menu, reaching diners at the exact moment they choose what to order.

🌍

Memory-recipient

the next visitor

A heartfelt gift from someone close

They receive a personal trip memory from someone they love — not an ad.

Discovers the destination

Opening the memory lands them on the destination's experience and content.

A welcome voucher → comes to visit

A first-time, never-visited recipient is offered a welcome voucher to come.

✦

Echo

the builder

Magnet margin (~€2.78 / unit)

Produced for ~€1.22; Echo's €4 share of the €12 leaves ~€2.78 margin per magnet.

Recurring memory-hosting

Hosting living memories over time is a recurring revenue line.

Supplier-marketing share (Y2, 30%)

From Year 2, Echo takes 30% of the venue's supplier-marketing sales.

Attraction-booking splits

Echo keeps a share of each attraction or event booked through the menu or app.

App booking margin

Bookings made in the app carry a margin for Echo.

The Malta data relationship

The long-term first-party-data partnership with the destination is the strategic upside.

🏛️

MTA / DMO

the payoff

Tourism money kept local — off the 20–30% cut

Bookings made directly through Feather avoid the 20–30% a foreign OTA would take out of the local economy.

Longer stays, higher spend per tourist

In-trip pushes prompt extra nights and activities — lifting the two metrics every board tracks.

Filled events / off-season demand

Targeted pushes fill specific events and stimulate shoulder-season demand.

First-party visitor data it lacks today

Every scan, booking and share is the destination's own data — origin, behaviour, spend — instead of sitting with the OTAs.

An owned, year-round channel

Subscribers from shares and diners form a push channel the destination owns, not rents from Booking or Instagram.

Closed-loop attribution

Vouchers and bookings tie a campaign to a real arrival and real in-destination spend.

A diaspora referral engine

Shares to the ~420,000 Maltese abroad bring warm, pre-sold prospects at near-zero cost.

Free professional upgrade for its restaurants

Venues get a digital menu plus analytics at no public cost.

New revenue for local restaurants

Restaurants earn per voucher redeemed — hands-off.

Tourists spread across Gozo and the south

Explore plus pushes distribute visitors and spend across Gozo and the south.

Local operators on equal footing

Local tours get distribution without paying foreign-platform commissions.

Local attractions less dependent on the monopolies

Gives operators a direct, destination-owned channel — so they're not locked into Tripadvisor, Booking & Viator, the platforms that own the customer and set the terms.

Backed by a regional tech company

A local company builds and runs it — a regional success story, not imported tech.

Zero cost, zero risk

No public software budget — the authority just convenes venues and endorses.

Scalable — a template for other Mediterranean destinations

A proven pilot becomes the blueprint for other Mediterranean destinations.

i Tap an info button on any benefit to see exactly how it works.

Capture this year's tourists. Bring back next year's.

A destination captures a visitor once — then loses them.

The money leaks out

The destination flies half-blind

One while they're here. One after they leave.

Feather — the free QR menu

Gulli — the souvenir magnet

Ana's trip becomes Mila's.