MHRA gets no government funds

Further to a front page article that appeared in The Times on September 24, and, moreover, in reaction to a letter written by Peter Micallef (September 27), the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association would like to clarify that the association does not receive any money from the funds allocated by the government to the tourism industry.

The article that appeared on September 24 reported that Minister John Dalli said that "it is now up to the MHRA to put its matters in order and to operate effectively within the budget allocated to it". The MHRA would like to clarify that no budget is in fact allocated to it by the government and, hence, would like to correct any misconception created by this article.

In his letter Mr Micallef states that the "MHRA and the government would get better results spending our tax money on attracting a budget airline to fly to Malta". Again the MHRA would like to make it very clear that it receives no funds whatsoever, taxation revenue or otherwise, from the government in order to market our islands.

The MHRA does agree with Mr Micallef, however, that Malta needs to attract low-cost airlines to fly to Malta to complement the services given today by Air Malta and has indeed made representations to this effect in the recent budget proposals presented to Mr Dalli.

By way of the same document, entitled "Going for Growth", the MHRA also encouraged the government to implement a tax incentive scheme so as to encourage private enterprise to carry out more marketing efforts on its own steam, although in line with the national marketing strategy and efforts.