Malta 'needs all inclusive resorts'

The tourism sector in Malta is missing important all inclusive resorts that could attract more people to the island, according to the chief executive of Frosch Touristik International, Dietmar Gunz.

"They need to cater for that person who has €500 in his pocket and wants to come on holiday with his family without ending up short of cash," he said yesterday.

The concept Mr Gunz spoke about, which is similar to that offered on cruise liners, allows tourists to eat, drink and use the hotel services without having to spend any extra cash.

Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said a number of hotels in the north of the island were looking at the possibility of transforming their property into an all-inclusive resort.

The German tour operator, which last year brought a third of all German tourists who visited the island, is bringing 1,000 travel agents on a familiarisation visit over a four-week period so that they can sell Malta better.

The country had all the needed ingredients for a leisure holiday. People wanted to go to a place that was unique but also close, Mr Gunz said. However, tourists wanted their holiday destinations to be more accessible, which made flights out of regional airports all the more important. There was no need for frequent services but a weekly flight would be helpful, he said.

This winter saw a decline in seat capacity from Germany due to the cancellation of Ryanair's Bremen route and Germanwings dropping its twice weekly flights from Stuttgart and Cologne. However, Air Malta will introduce twice weekly flights to Stuttgart next month. "Our main responsibility is to ensure that there are people on those seats," Dr de Marco said.

He said that although there was no magic solution to the problems faced by the tourism industry, doing nothing was not an option. "This year will be a difficult year. We have to market ourselves harder than we did in previous years." The Malta Tourism Authority was launching television adverts in Germany in a bid to increase its reach.

The government wanted to affirm its commitment to the German market, the second most important for Malta, which brought a staggering 212,000 tourists in 1999, Dr de Marco said. Despite a downward trend that saw the numbers drop to 128,000 in 2003, things were improving again and 150,000 German tourists visited last year.

Dr de Marco said that although more could be done to improve the infrastructure, including the state of roads, about 30 per cent of tourists who came to Malta had already visited in the past. Last November, the president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, Kevin DeCesare, lashed out at the poor state of the Malta "product", describing it as plagued by filth, noise pollution and general untidiness.

Mr Gunz however said it was not a problem to sell Malta, which was seen as safe and rather clean.