'MTA's fire-fighting approach to recession'

Opposition spokesperson on tourism Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said the Malta Tourism Authority had used a fire-fighting approach to tackle the recession and the resultant crisis which led to a decrease in tourist arrivals. The authority failed to tackle long-term problems and changes in the industry.

She said the MTA report lacked details, considering the authority managed €32 million coming from public funds. The estimates had been presented six months after their due date.

In 2008, MTA's auditor had found a number of irregularities in contracts, issuing of tenders, overcharged prices in contracts, errors in calculations of invoices, and salaries, financial limits exceeded and posting to inappropriate accounts. Dr Coleiro Preca criticised the authority for allowing such abuses and accused it of lack of transparency and responsibility.

The MHRA survey for the first quarter of 2010 showed that although the hotel occupancy rate had increased, the gross operating profit per room had decreased. The survey also noted Irish, Russian and German tourists had decreased. Although low cost-carriers had boasted the number of tourists coming to Malta, this was not enough.

Furthermore, the MHRA reported that winter tourism was still very weak. The government had to monitor this issue closely and find relevant solutions to this problem.

Dr Coleiro Preca urged the government to follow the eight challenges the EU advocated to be followed in the tourism industry.

Tourism in Malta amounted to between 21 and 22 per cent of the GDP. It was, therefore, useless to compare Malta to Cyprus when Cyprus's tourism amounted to only 11 per cent. Also, one could not compare Malta's two blue flag beaches to Cyprus's 54 such beaches.

One also had to analyse what type of tourists were coming to Malta. The upward trend in Spanish arrivals had to be analysed to establish which of these were language students. Regulations on boutique hotels were still not in place discouraging such hotels to open due to the lack of a legal framework.

Although in 2009 the government came up with a scheme to help hotels upgrade, this scheme was offered in a year when hotels where hit by the recession and thus could not afford it. The 24.5 per cent increase in utility bills further stifled improvement. Although online tourism was very important the government had to safeguard local agencies.

Referring to Gozo, Dr Coleiro Preca said the situation on the sister Island was more problematic. According to NSO statistics, the number of tourists visiting Gozo had decreased by a substantial amount.

The government should promote Gozo as an all-year round destination which offered agro-tourism and religious pilgrimages.

She also called on the government to beef up the staff in the MTA working on Gozo. At present only one person at the MTA was in the Gozo Unit. The government should work on creating a blue flagged beach in Gozo.

Dr Coleiro Preca noted that employments in the hospitality industry had shrunk by 4.1 per cent and that the biggest number of infringements was met in the tourism sector.

The government should also explain the €0.8 million in fees that had been paid to Media Consulta, she concluded.