Malta’s proposal to grant a single visa to group leaders of non-EU tourists holidaying in Europe is being supported by the EU’s Executive, according to European Industry and Tourism Commissioner Antonio Tajani.

The idea of a single visa had been put forward by Malta at an EU conference on tourism in Spain earlier this year as a way to solve the waiting time for visas to be issued.

So far this year, Malta has issued 42,000 visas for no-EU nationals to be able to visit the island.

Mr Tajani acknowledged the security implications the move could have, an issue also raised by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco.

Addressing the European Tourism Forum, Dr de Marco said visas should never be a barrier to tourism and Dr Gonzi said it was useless investing millions of euros in the sector if tourists were denied the basic key to travel. However, due consideration had to be given to the security aspect, he said.

Mr Tajani said the European Commission was four square behind Malta on this proposal and Dr de Marco said even Greece had expressed its support for the idea.

Such an initiative would help trim the bureaucratic red tape obstructing tourism growth in Europe. “In the face of competition we have to change our way of doing things,” he said.

Mr Tajani said Europe had to come up with its own destination brand and, although it sounded contradictory, individual countries had to endeavour to diversify the European tourism product.

Last year, arrivals to European destinations from Brazil increa­sed by 46 per cent, from China by 19 per cent and from Russia by 18 per cent. The Asian market made up 38 per cent of total arrivals and this figure was expected to increase to 47 per cent by 2020, almost equalling the figure of Asians who holiday in the US.

Mr Tajani said Europe had to tackle the seasonality problem and take advantage of events such as the London Olympics in 2012 and the Expo in Milan in 2015, as these would help attract more people.

Dr de Marco said Europe had been longing for a tourism action plan. The financial crisis showed how resilient and flexible the industry was and Malta shifted its focus on short haul and managed to increase Italian tourism by 30 per cent and tripled the number of visitors from Spain.

He said European countries should work together to tap tourism from Brazil, India, China and the Russian markets instead of competing with one another.

In a passionate closing speech, which earned him a long applause from participants, Dr Gonzi said for tourism to succeed, countries, including Malta, had to be successful in other areas, such as the environment, waste management, recycling, energy, electricity and security, among others. Moreover, education had a pivotal role to play in the industry. How could the island possibly provide a good service without education, he asked.

Addressing the seasonality problem, Dr Gonzi said countries should tap into niche markets such as religious, cultural and sports tourism.

“Europe should be at the forefront of the industry because what was available in Europe could not be found anywhere else. There is no competition with Europe on this. In 40 minutes you can go from one side of Malta to the other but you will be crossing 7,000 years of history. This is what we and other European countries can offer to whoever visits us,” he said.

He noted that the first indications of positive results after the recession, which had dampened everybody’s morale, were being seen and tourism could play an important role in getting the economy growth back on the right track.

This year, Dr Gonzi said, was going to be a record one for Malta and the logic behind this was transforming challenges into opportunities to stimulate investment.

The conference in Malta discussed an ambitious action plan to market the EU as a single tourist destination, branding the product and harmonising the travel logistics. Workshops discussed the formation of a common EU policy for tourism.

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