Overseas travel by Maltese cut by 50% in first half of 2021

Aug 26 2021

The National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that the first six months of 2021 experienced a 50.1% drop in Maltese travelling abroad compared to 2020. This translates to around 57,684 of Maltese going abroad overseas. With Malta having restricted travel in March 2020 as the pandemic hit, tourism reopening in July did not see a massive resurgence in travel all across Europe.

Malta officially restarted tourism season in June 2021, but with tourists having to follow strict procedures which vary from country to country, this may have contributed to tourists thinking twice before travelling abroad. For the Maltese context, all travellers must present proof of vaccination to avoid quarantine. According to the same NSO figures, those going abroad for holidays spent more days away with these going up by 23.5%. This totalled around 831,118 nights, with total outlay by residents student reducing to €52.6 million (35.3% drop).

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Photo Source: Air Malta

Two new football video games announced set to challenge FIFA

Aug 26 2021

Recently, two new football games, UFL and Goals, have been announced by their respective creators. They are both set to be free to play, cross-play and include multiplayer. The exact release dates have not been announced just yet, but we do know that Goals will be released in 2-3 years time. Unlike Goals, UFL have already released a teaser trailer, meaning that the release of the game will come in the near future. They will be keen to battle FIFA and E-Football (PES) for supremacy.

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A post shared by UFL (@uflgame)

UFL have already began marketing their game well by becoming the shirt sponsor of English team Hashtag United. Hashtag United have one of the biggest social media presences in English football, considering that their owner is famous youtuber Spencer Owen and one of their player is recent Love Island runner up Toby Aromalaran. Hashtag United alone have an Instagram following of 488k followers, so sponsoring them isn’t a bad start. They also have an exclusive sponsorship with English club West Ham.

Their game engine is currently Unreal engine and will reportedly be an online only game. The main gist of the game is to create your own club with up to 5,000 licensed players to choose from.

Fans know less about Goals, but what we do know is that Maltese youtuber and former professional FIFA player Kurt0411 will be helping out the game creators. Kurt was very famous in the FIFA scene, but was recently banned from playing FIFA after ongoing criticism about the game. The creator of the game is Andreas Thorstensson, a former professional Counter-Strike player.

https://t.co/zFMv2452xN

— Kurt (@Kurt0411Fifa) August 20, 2021

The main aim for Andreas is to create a game good enough for E-sports. Andreas also announced that the game will not be pay to win, unlike FIFA, but play to earn – meaning the more you play the more you will earn. Players will earn NFT’s, which they can later sell off for money. NFT’s are a form of cryptocurrency and are said to be the future of gaming.

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42 COVID-19 cases registered with 59 recoveries

Aug 26 2021

Malta has registered 42 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours from 3,264 swab tests, while 59 patients have recovered. No deaths were registered in the past 24 hours. This information was announced by the official Facebook page of Malta’s Ministry for Health.

As of Wednesday 25th August 2021, 793,866 vaccine doses were administered of which 412,239 were 1st doses. 411,046 people are currently fully vaccinated.

To date, Malta has registered 35,950 COVID-19 cases in total, of which: 34,447 have recovered, 438 died and 669 are still active.

Mater Dei Hospital is currently treating a total of 33 COVID-19 positive patients, 2 of whom are in the ITU.

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McDonalds hints the return of the ‘CBO’ and people are hyped

Aug 26 2021

McDonald’s CBO, which stood for ‘Cheddar, Bacon, Onion, made a massive hit both locally and internationally. Now, the fast food chain is teasing the return of a mysterious sandwich, and many are convinced the CBO is making it’s grand comeback.

The CBO garnered mixed reviews from customers – some absolutely loved the taste whilst others weren’t so impressed. The tease sent McDonald’s fans into a frenzy, mouth already watering over the day they can get a bite into their favourite burger.

Some have also suggested this could be the McRoyal, but CBO fans have taken centre stage. And the tease seemingly points to this being true as well. We’ll have to wait and see, tummies rumbling.

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Photo Source: McDonald’s FB