1.3m tourism target still attainable, de Marco insists

Hotels will not become tax collectors on behalf of the government, the president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, Kevin DeCesare, stressed yesterday as the industry braces itself for a bleak winter. If the government wanted to impose a €0.50 daily accommodation tax it had to find a way of collecting it itself, Mr DeCesare said in a strongly-worded speech during the association's annual general meeting.

"We think this tax is ill-advised. Let us hope good sense will prevail," he said, adding that the levy could very well be the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

He spoke disapprovingly of the new electricity tariffs, which would see some hotels paying a hefty increase, although he admitted some would save money. The capping on the surcharge for industry was there to keep it competitive and this was needed more than ever.

Mr DeCesare criticised the Malta Tourism Authority for not reacting fast enough to the downward trend in tourism, particularly in making decisions about the opening of new airline routes.

"Bold decisions, especially on new routes, need to be taken now. We are already late and in reality these decisions should have been taken earlier."

He said most hoteliers were now forecasting a 20 per cent drop in occupancy for the winter months and some were predicting worse. Moreover, a number of tourist operators felt abandoned and believed the effort and support they received from the MTA was not as strong as it used to be.

Mr DeCesare also lashed out at the poor state of the Malta "product", which was plagued by filth, noise pollution and general untidiness. He accused the government of being seemingly unable to address the issue of cleanliness.

"There doesn't seem to be the will to resolve this problem," he said.

While the Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism Mario de Marco did mention the importance of improving the product, he pointed out that the government - which was investing €120 million to improve the tourism product over the next three years - was not the only one that could address these issues.

"On this the buck does not stop only with me or the government. It stops with all tourism operators, not to mention citizens. We all have our part to play in improving our tourism product. We need to manage, clean and present our resources better," he said.

Dr de Marco stressed that offering tourists good value for money was the "best competitive edge" Malta could gain over competing destinations. However, Malta did not necessarily need to be the cheapest destination on the market.

Speaking about future prospects, Dr de Marco said the situation for next year did not look positive as Malta's main source markets entered a recession.

Although international tourism had resisted the downturn better than other economic sectors, changes were taking place and if left unchecked the local tourism industry would probably shrink.

Still, despite the doom and gloom in the global economy, Malta was expecting an overall growth of between four and five per cent this year and it was still possible to reach the 1.3 million tourist figure by the end of the year, he said.

The MTA's chief executive, Josef Formosa Gauci, outlined the authority's strategy for the coming months, which included marketing initiatives aimed at stimulating demand from Malta's target consumers who were least likely to be affected by the international recession. He said the MTA was also considering working with parish priests to develop religious tourism niches.