The opposition spokesman on tourism, Evarist Bartolo, urged the Prime Minister today to ensure that the inter-ministerial committee on tourism worked more effectively.

He said at a meeting with the council of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association that although tourist numbers were growing, it would be foolhardy for anyone to ignore the problems which the industry faced.

Apart from the changes needed within the Malta Tourism Authority, tourism also faced problems which stemmed from the impact of oil prices on airlines, the economic situation in the UK – Malta’s biggest tourism market - and the rate of exchange with Sterling, strong competition on price and value from other destinations and the need for the Maltese product to improve.

The role of the inter-ministerial committee, among other things, is to ensure that the country is clean, to develop the tourism product including new sandy beaches, new beach facilities and better transport services, to take the initiative for product development in association with the public sector and to propose financial incentives to help tourism.

Mr Bartolo congratulated Josef Formosa Gauci, who has been appointed CEO of the MTA and promised his cooperation.