The government has formed a consultative committee to pool in suggestions which will culminate in a strategic vision for tourism which will take the country to 2020.

Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said that the 2012-2016 strategy developed by the previous administration got results but needed some revisions since the tourism industry was a highly volatile one.

The way Malta was marketed and the product on offer needed to be re-evaluated and updated.

The board currently incorporates members of the tourism industry, including the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS), Air Malta and the Valletta Cruise Port, but might expand to encapsulate small and medium enterprises. It will pool in suggestions by January 2015, while the new strategic vision is expected to be drafted by March 2015, Dr Zammit Lewis said.

The product on offer needed to be re-evaluated and updated

Challenges addressed will include Malta’s dependence on the tourism industry and its socio-economic impacts on society and infrastructure. The infrastructure needed to sustain the record figures of tourist arrivals.

Asked whether the government was considering capping tourism arrivals following the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association’s call to define a maximum carrying capacity, the minister said he was not seeing the need for this at this stage but the committee would be discussing capacity in peak months.

According to recent statistics, tourist arrivals in April increased by 13 per cent over the same month last year. Tourists to Gozo in April increased by nine per cent over the same month last year.

The challenge revolving around Gozo involved making it a tourism hotspot in its own right to increase the number of jobs of Gozitans while reducing the small island’s dependence on day trippers.

Issues which will be discussed, Dr Zammit Lewis added, included the use of digital media in marketing, ecotourism, sustainable tourism, more training and the strengthening of the cooperation between the Malta Tourism Authority and Air Malta vis-à-vis route development.

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