MHRA president urges targeting of conference, incentives sector

Tourism operators are being urged to work together to capitalise on the wider prospects of conference and incentive travel, now that EU membership is assured.

Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association president Winston Zahra believes Malta can double the number of visitors in this particular field thanks to the prospects of membership.

"Conferences in Europe are a huge market. We have good conference facilities and what's more, we offer excellent value for money," Mr Zahra argued, in an interview with The Times.

Additionally Malta was only a few hours flight away from most European markets and has an added attraction due to the fact that it can offer a business atmosphere in a relaxed island environment.

In 2000, a total of 20.1 million Europeans went on outbound meetings, incentives, conferences and events, a market referred to as the MICE market in the trade.

With a 20 per cent share, Germany took the bulk of the market, followed by France, at 10 per cent, and Italy at eight per cent. Malta's share was 0.28 per cent.

A total of 58,000 delegates visited Malta in 2001, generating Lm19 million for the economy.

In addition to this important high yield segment, Mr Zahra stressed that leisure travel also stood to benefit from membership, as proved by the MHRA's EU impact reports.

This segment was extremely important for all local properties, whatever star rating they carried.

Mr Zahra said it was worth pointing out a resolution passed by the Council of Ministers last May which urged member states to reflect upon the means to strengthen the position and image of Europe as a diverse and attractive set of destinations and on the future growth of tourism in Europe.

This meant that the EU was promoting travel, not within its peripheries, but within the union. European companies were in fact already increasingly looking at organising conferences within the EU.

Now that Malta had signed the EU accession treaty, Mr Zahra said, it was time to move on from discussion to concrete action.

He said it was now time to start collectively analysing how Malta could squeeze the best out of membership for the tourism sector and other sectors for which a great deal of preparatory work has been done.

"From a tourism perspective, the more we capitalise on the presence of Malta in the EU, the more we stand to gain. The exposure of our island as well as the image and the overall perception of Malta stand to greatly improve within our new European context," he said.

Mr Zahra stood by the report commissioned by the association in the run-up to the referendum, which predicted a rise in revenue of between 1.9 per cent and 2.2 per cent if Malta became an EU member.

He envisaged that the positive effects of membership on the tourism sector would be felt within 18 months to two years, provided Malta played its cards right.

He added that the growth forecast in the reports did not take into consideration the positive factors ensuing from the added exposure of Malta within the European markets.

Mr Zahra believes the tourism sector has not reached saturation point and that the figure of 1.2 million tourists could be fuelled to over 1.6 million, provided tourists were spread more evenly throughout the year.

In August, some 150,000 people visited Malta, a far cry from the figures of the lean winter months.

Of course, membership also greatly enhanced Malta's chances to sort out its environmental problems, Mr Zahra noted.

EU regulations and funding on these issues were very much at the forefront of the benefits to the tourism industry, as long as Malta took advantage of them.

Commenting on the new government cabinet, Mr Zahra, on behalf of the industry, thanked outgoing minister Michael Refalo for his work and contribution to the industry and welcomed Francis Zammit Dimech on board.

Mr Zahra thinks Dr Zammit Dimech is the right man for the job since, among other reasons, his previous ministerial portfolio meant that he was fully aware of the country's environmental problems, which are often blamed for harming tourism.

"There are environment problems which need to be tackled at once, and we are sure Dr Zammit Dimech knows that these are a priority. We are confident that he will keep open communication channels with the players in the industry to ensure that the decisions taken are proactive and timely to ensure success."

Mr Zahra called upon the Labour Party to stop what he described as its EU scare-mongering campaign and to accept that membership would not bring the doom the party had predicted.

"The political bickering and use of political media to continually influence people should be laid to rest and a collective effort made for the benefit of Malta's most important sector," he appealed.

The MHRA would in the meantime continue working very closely with the Confederation of European Hotels, Restaurants and Cafes to ensure the conditions implemented at a European level were conducive to drawing people to Malta.

With a collective investment of over Lm450 million, the MHRA represents over 120 hotels and 300 restaurants.