Editorial

The new president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, Winston Zahra Jnr, had some interersting points to make in an interview he gave to The Times a few days ago.

When discussing the Malta-EU situation, he said: "We want to be realistic and objective in our eventual stand as an association. Partisan politics does not interest us, the success of our industry is what will take precedence in our eventual position".

He is quite right to object to the way tourism - like every other issue in Malta - is heavily politicised, with the government and the opposition trying to make political mileage at every step of the way. This hurt the industry as businessmen who have invested a great deal of money cannot afford to have their eyes continually on who is going to win every election, as if everything was going to change every time.

As a result of this politicisation, the industry is also unfairly criticised by those who should make every effort to give it a good name. Tourism figures are given a political interpretation, irritating to a great degree those who irrespecitive of the party in power work so hard to attract tourists to the island. When will all this stop? Will it ever stop?

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association represents over 120 hotels and 300 restaurants. The collective investment made by the association's members is over Lm450 million.

The association has commissioned three reports about the impact on the industry of EU membership and of staying out of the EU. The association has studied the issue for three years.

One report covers the impact of VAT and the euro while the second deals with the effect of the social charter. The third concentrates on the effects of standards, air traffic deregulation and other aspects of membership.

Mr Zahra said the association had been unable to study the Labour Party's partnership option because there seemed to be no concrete documents about the matter. Nevertheless, the association meets with Minister Michael Refalo and Opposition Leader Sant quite regularly to talk about issues and progress.

Mr Zahra is appreciative of the progress made in some very important parts of the island's infrastructure, such as the airport and the building of the reverse osmosis plants. But he is also right to worry about the adverse effect of the roads (still no visible improvement, except in little stretches here and there, usually taking ages), the general shabbiness, the Maghtab, and so much lack of cleanliness and discipline.

The setting up of MTA was a milestone and a step towards the possibility of having a long-term national strategy, especially since it was set up with the support of both sides of the House. The industry is prone to the effects of the volatile international situation, as the world's tourism industry has come to realise only too well after September 11, 2001.

There was another worrying point, the continual adding of more hotels and beds. There are already far more beds than tourists even at the best of times. Building more hotels instead of upgrading the present ones would not only create more unsustainable competition, but would take up more open land, more breathing spaces.

The industry is so important to the island's economy that we should all put our shoulders to it and see that the tourists get their money's worth, and go away singing our praises to their friends.