MLP calls for tourism action plan

Opposition tourism spokesman Evarist Bartolo has urged the government to draw up an action plan for tourism so that this sector would not remain rudderless, as it was at present.

Mr Bartolo said in a statement that tourism was one of Malta's economic pillars and needed to be tackled more seriously by the government. It was useless giving the tourism authority a new structure if ministers continued to act on their own, taking decisions which were detrimental to tourism. Indeed, the government should set the example by ensuring that ministers pulled the same rope.

Mr Bartolo issued his statement to mark World Tourism Day, being marked today.

It was appropriate, he said, that the theme this year was Sport and Tourism.

Malta needed to improve the linkage betweens sport and tourism, by developing its sports facilities and making them available also to visitors.

Mr Bartolo said all should work to ensure that tourists were satisfied with their visit here.

The Labour Party, he said, was concerned that some tourism operators were losing heart and closing their operations instead of investing in new facilities.

The government should not burden this sector with further costs, more so when it was already hard pressed to keep up with competition from other destinations. Rather, the government should ensure that the country was clean and no one was allowed to abuse tourists.

He also urged the government to give more importance to Gozo's tourism potential.