Hoteliers were urged by the president of their association this afternoon to hold on to their room rates, now that they have improved.
MHRA president Tony Zahra, speaking at the quarterly presentation of hotel performance figures said hoteliers should not give in to pressure to reduce room rates.
The results, presented by Deloitte, showed growth in occupancy and room rates in all sectors. However forecasts for bookings in April were seen as dropping by two percent.
Mr Zahra said the improved figures were great news and things were getting better for hoteliers, especially with the 25% reduction in energy tariffs at the end of this month.
"Rates are up and so is occupancy. Make sure that you hang on to those rates - don't lower them. You lower your rates and every euro you drop will affect your bottom line. Keep your rates up, and keep your costs in check for good returns."
Mr Zahra said that while the tariffs cut was welcome, Enemalta also needed to make sure that supply was constant and uninterrupted.
He said the country also needed to raise its game with regard to the road infrastructure.
"We really have a problem with our roads. They make the country look shabby. Why cannot we get it right? Why can't we maintain roads once we build them?
"Let's see how we can do better. We have to up our game. All we need to do is focus on what we are doing and expect better from everybody. Its not too difficult to keep our country clean, roads right and constant electricity," he said.
Presenting figures for the last quarter of 2014 compared to the end of 2013, David Bonnet, from Deloittte, said in the fourth quarter, five star hotels saw occupancy grow by 7.4%. Growth was of 5.8% in four-star hotels and 7.7% in three star.
Room rates were up by 9% in five star hotels, 8.8% in four-star and 17.1% in three star hotels.
Mr Bonnet noted that better usage of hotel facilities resulted in better profitability while the rates that were being charged for every room went up without impacting occupancy negatively.
"We have seen very encouraging increases in rates on an annual basis since 2010, reflecting the investment and improvement in service quality," he added.
Julian Diacono presented figures on the current booking scenario collected by MHRA and the tourism authority until mid-March.
Occupancy figures for February showed growth of nearly 11 percentage points while for March business on the books showed an eight per cent increase.
However, in April bookings were down by two per cent. Despite this, hotels were still positive about last minute bookings - two thirds of hotels said rates should be better than last year in April.
The drop in April bookings was strange, Mr Farrugia said, especially because of Easter, but it could be explained by a drop in conference and incentive travel.
The review was presented at the Manoel Theatre to symbolically show that the culture sector is close to the tourism sector.
Toni Attard, Director Strategy of Culture at Arts Council Malta, called for dialogue with the hotel industry that could enhance tourists' accessibility to information about cultural events, including transport and ticketing.
He urged the tourism authority to show that contemporary Malta was not just about baroque spaces, sun and sea.
Malta has great unique experiences and historic sites, but it was what we did with these sites that mattered, he said, later noting that the touristic sector was not doing enough when it came to the promotion of cultural events.