The future of Air Malta remained a critical success factor for tourism, MHRA president George Micallef said this afternoon.

Speaking during the presentation of the association’s end of year report on the performance of Malta’s hotels industry, which showed that Malta last year outperformed the majority of EU member states, Mr Micallef noted that, despite the positive results, hotels reported a decline in both average achieved room rate and occupancy, when compared to 2008, and the registered revenue levels were three per cent below 2008.

“This situation has been brought about because of the prevailing market trends, stiffer competition and in particular, because of the substantial increases in operating costs,” stated Mr Micallef.

Mr Micallef said it was imperative that Malta continued to intensify efforts to increase arrivals and tourist expenditure in the years to come to prevent having to decrease the number of beds on the island.

The industry, he said, had to continue to restructure itself in a way which minimised operating costs,” he emphasised.

Mr Micallef said that the prevailing escalation of unrest in Libya had slowed down bookings for Malta, at a time when the industry normally experienced a surge in bookings.

“The risk of further increases to the cost of fuel, as well as the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, does not augur well for the immediate future of the industry,” he observed.

He reiterated that the future of Air Malta remained a critical success factor for tourism.

“We appeal to government to continue to work towards finding ways of controlling inflation, and more importantly, avoiding the introduction of government induced costs, like the VAT increase on accommodation, which couldn’t have come at a worst time,” Mr Micallef said.