Minister calls for positive thinking on tourism

Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said yesterday this was the time for more positive thinking about tourism, and the sector would not be well served with talk of gloom and doom.

Concluding the budget debate on the Ministry of Tourism, the minister said he saw new positive symptoms for the tourism industry.

They included the strong investment being made in the industry and the improved economic situation in many of the tourism source countries. The operation of Snow-flake low-cost airline from Scandinavia was seen as an opportunity since studies had shown that passengers on low-cost airlines did not necessarily spend less on their holiday - they saved on their flight to spend more on their accommodation.

Another good sign for the future was how Frosch had chosen Malta to re-launch its services.

Dr Zammit Dimech said opportunities in tourism would increase with EU membership as Malta would be operating in a market of 500 million people.

He said the importance of tourism for the economy was recognised in the budget through the allocation of Lm10 million for embellishment works while the VAT rate on tourism accommodation had been kept at five per cent.

The budget also provided for the creation of a special fund which would be credited with VAT receipts from hotels and restaurants and used for recurrent and capital expenditure in tourism.

Dr Zammit Dimech said tourist arrivals had totalled 1.2 million in 1999, followed by a 0.12 per cent increase in the year 2000.

Arrivals had dropped in 2001 and 2002 for various reasons including the September 11 events and the performance of the German economy, Germany being an importance source market for Malta.

He was pleased to note that German tour operator Frosch Touristic had now chosen Malta to do a "reloading exercise" of the services it offered after recovering from problems it had experienced. This exercise would bring 700 agents to Malta.

Dr Zammit Dimech said Malta did not want just to increase tourism volume. It did not want to compete with cheap prices, not least because it could not offer the cheap rates offered in other Mediterranean countries. It wanted to compete on the strength of Malta's tourist attractions and offer real value.

The problems in the German tourist market were not being felt only by Malta. According to figures issued by the European Travel Commission, Cyprus would lose five per cent of tourist arrivals overall, including a 30 per cent fall in arrivals from Germany.

Greece expected a drop of 2.5 per cent in arrivals, including five per cent from Germany. Malta expected its arrivals to drop by one per cent, including a decline of 8.5 per cent in arrivals from Germany.

Figures to date showed that per capita income from tourism was this year up by 8.78 per cent while guest nights had risen by 9.2 per cent.

The number of visitors who arrived on cruise liners had risen by 11,000 passengers between January and October, although such people were not included in the tourist arrival figures.

Dr Zammit Dimech said work on the building of the cruise passenger terminal was proceeding faster than laid down in the contract approved by parliament. Increased emphasis would be placed in future on fly and cruise tourism whereby tourists would fly to Malta to start their cruise from here.

The minister said increased use was being made of the internet for promotion. It was calculated that this year a total of 1.5 million hits would have been made on the visitmalta.com site. A number of visitors to the site, which was well-designed and interactive, booked online.

Dr Zammit Dimech said that in comparing performance with other countries, one had to keep in mind that only 45 per cent of outbound tourists travelled by air, so Malta was only taking a portion of 45 and not 100 per cent. Another three per cent travelled by sea, the rest by car or train.

Turning to bed stock, Dr Zammit Dimech said the MTA was analysing the situation in view of the fact that a study regarding capacity had concluded that bed capacity including potential bed capacity should be retained at the December 2002 level. The current stock was 341 beds less.

Turning to capital projects, Dr Zammit Dimech said the Cottonera project was moving at a good pace and other phases in the yacht marina were to be concluded next year.

The development at Cottonera was now to extend to the Dock 1 site, for which various options were under consideration.

Work was also moving ahead on the Manoel Island project, with apartments being developed at Tigné Point. The next phase of the project was the building of the Tigné sports complex, which would include the restoration of historic buildings.

On the Connections project, the minister said that the most important aspect was to have the Valletta lift down from the Upper Barrakka back in operation. There was also a proposal for the service of a cable car.

Turning to Gozo, the minister said that the ferry schedule had again been improved and whenever journalists were brought to Malta a day trip to Gozo was included in their programme and Gozo was being featured in the marketing campaign abroad. It was also worth noting the government investment on the new Gozo ferries.

Touching on the tourist guides course in reaction to comments by Karmenu Vella (MLP), Dr Zammit Dimech said he personally disagreed with the MTA holding such courses when they were also held by the Institute of Tourism Studies. Clearly there should be more coordination between the two on this subject.

Referring to claims that Malta was again becoming dependent on the British tourism market, Dr Zammit Dimech said this was not something which could be solved by reducing the number of arrivals from the UK but by raising the number of arrivals from other markets.

Dr Zammit Dimech said that looking ahead, there were new positive symptoms in tourism, but the benefits to be derived depended on how capable the country was to grab opportunities.

Indeed this was a time to think positively about tourism, since the sector was not served by doom and gloom.