MTA and the industry

With reference to the article (March 3) by Sam Mifsud and David Mifsud, chairman and chief executive officer respectively of the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA), I would like to comment on the relationship between the MTA officials and the trade.

In one of the paragraphs it was stated that "relations with the main stakeholders in the industry have improved considerably over the past few months, with update and consultation meetings being held on a very regular basis".

I would like to point out that from the moment that the two gentlemen took office on September 1, 2006, the Leisure and Tourism Economic Group of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise has repeatedly asked for a meeting to discuss important issues that are affecting the trade especially about the launch of the MTA's visitmalta web portal, but up to the time of writing no meeting was ever held. It is therefore not correct to state that relations with main stakeholders have improved considerably when we are being continuously ignored.

We would like to once again present our position with regards to the visitmalta web portal. We are against the way it has been launched, as we have been insisting for the past months in various news releases and comments in the media.

In our opinion, the way it is being presented is an easy way out to eliminate the travel agent and encourage bookings directly with the hotels through the portal.

The MTA should be the regulatory authority of the industry and not operate in direct competition with the industry.

We are given to understand that Visitmalta Ltd - the newly MTA-formed company that is responsible for the visitmalta web portal - is not even licensed by the same MTA to do so.