Product Malta

In your editorial (July 16) you rightly emphasised the importance of the overall appearance of our island and appealed to the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association to use its muscle to get things going in the right direction.

On behalf of the council of the MHRA, I would like to assure your readers that the MHRA is placing a great amount of pressure on the government to improve the "look and feel" aspects of our island. In the association's position paper presented to the prime minister on May 9 this year, the MHRA made it extremely clear that "Product Malta" has to be seriously upgraded to safeguard future visitor flows to our island.

Moreover, if one reads the concluding speech delivered at the MHRA EU Decision Time conference held on February 4 this year, the association stated that "the lack of attention given by successive local governments to this area (overall environment) is probably the biggest threat to the future of our tourism industry locally. The fact is that without EU membership, this problem will remain unresolved as it has to date. No amount of promises from any local government are credible in the eyes of the MHRA, as neither side of the House has a positive track record in this area. This is an area where non-EU accession will definitely lead to a status quo situation and a continual degradation of our product, Product Malta".

Unfortunately, despite continual lobbying and efforts made by the MHRA, the state of many tourism zones remains as it is - the reason always cited is lack of funds. It is also fair to state that some works and improvements, such as the Sliema/St Julian's promenade and Bugibba, have been given the attention they deserve.

The MHRA has also been proactive on this issue and commissioned a report on the negative impact of the overall environment on tourist's experience. The report, which has been funded by the Malta Tourism Authority, will include the results of 1,500 interviews with tourists as they were leaving Malta over the past six months. The results of the report, which also includes work by MISCO and Deloitte & Touche, will be concluded in September and presented to the government accordingly.

The MHRA will continue to do its part by ensuring that the authorities are continually aware of the negative effect the state of the overall product has on the tourist experience and the compounded negative effects of a negative experience of future visitor flows and income streams from this industry.