FOI and MHRA officials meet

FOI president Anton Borg led an FOI delegation last Tuesday at a meeting with officials of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) led by president Winston Zahra.

The main objective of this meeting for the FOI side was to understand more fully the situation in the leisure industry and for both sides to conduct an exchange of views on a position paper prepared by the MHRA on key issues facing the tourism industry.

FOI and MHRA officials also exchanged views on other important matters of mutual interest.

Decreasing competitiveness in both the tourism and manufacturing sectors was described as a disquieting development. Both sectors mentioned the serious problems relating to infrastructure, especially the lack of decisions that need to be taken on environment problems that have been left by Government to grow into a serious handicap for the tourist industry.

The different options and merits of waste treatment, including waste separation, waste to energy, recycling and land reclamation were discussed. The Maghtab problem and proposed solutions by Government were not considered adequate by both sides and certain joint initiatives in this respect were considered.

The FOI and MHRA officials also discussed the volatility of the tourism industry, decreasing earnings by the sector and the effects on the economy. The MHRA expressed concern about available funding for marketing campaigns to boost tourism for the current year.

There was a discussion on the state of preparedness of Government to absorb all possible EU funding available for important and urgent infrastructure projects for Malta to be able to offer a high standard tourism product.

Accompanying the FOI president were deputy president Adrian Bajada, vice presidents Joe Pace and Martin Galea, and director-general Edwin Calleja. The MHRA officials attending this meeting included a number of council members, among them chief executive Donald Pace Bonello and the consultant on EU matters, Natalie Flynn.