Call for greater effort to beat effects of recession in tourism

Malta Tourism Authority chairman John Grech, who was reappointed by the government yesterday, called for a concerted effort to promote tourism, the island's most important sector, in the wake of global downturn.

"Apart from the backlash of the September 11 attacks, the industry is going through one of its toughest global recessions. This is why we need everybody's support," Dr Grech said.

Dr Grech said, however, that Malta was faring better than some of its competitors, such as Spain.

Still, an even bigger effort was required, and it was important to build the industry on diversibility and sustainability rather than subsidies.

The MTA chairman was reappointed for a three-year term by Tourism Minister Michael Refalo.

Dr Refalo paid tribute to Dr Grech who, he said, had led the MTA with clear direction, and in the process injected the authority's staff with high work ethics.

By setting up the MTA and ensuring the presence of the private sector on its board, the government had kept its electoral pledge to give the private sector a strong voice in the planning and management of tourism, Dr Refalo said.

The private sector also had a privileged position from where to exercise a determining influence on government policy.

Dr Refalo recalled that the authority had all its directorates up and running and that it had undertaken a massive review of subsidiary legislation.

Moreover, the MTA had managed to penetrate certain niche markets such as conferences and incentive travel.

The MTA had not shied away from taking difficult decisions, he said, citing the removal of the Tour Operator Support Scheme as a prime example.

Dr Refalo said the year had unfolded as forecast and while performance to Malta had shown lower volume, results from June onwards show that, with the exception of the German market, the industry was well on the way to recovery.

Dr Refalo said that volume was relatively important but it was certainly not the main benchmark to measure a destination's success.

Both the MTA and Dr Refalo had forecast at the end of last year that 2002 would be a difficult year and that arrivals would be around 1.1 million, some 80,000 fewer than in 2001. It was likely that these estimates would prove to be correct.

"MTA, Air Malta, the private sector and the government have all played a part to engineer this revival, but the September 11 effect will be with us for some time," he warned.

This was caused by a number of factors, including the loss of air seat capacity, loss of airlines operating to Malta, such as Swissair, and because tour operators had trimmed traffic to sustainable proportions.

"You cannot put bums on seats if the seats are not there...!" the minister said.