The situation for the winter in the northern touristic areas of Bugibba, Qawra and St Paul’s Bay is not as bleak as some hoteliers and their association have portrayed it to be, and authorities were taking steps to embellish public areas and help in the marketing effort to the tune of several million euros, Malta Tourism Authority chief executive Josef Formosa Gauci told The Times Business.
“The area is getting attention,” Mr Formosa Gauci said. “There are several initiatives, including projects, subsidies for hotel refurbishment and upgrades, and joint marketing schemes from which Bugibba, Qawra and St Paul’s Bay will stand to benefit. We are working on the public infrastructure, but we do not have control over factors like unsightly apartment blocks that need a coat of paint.
“The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs is working on embellishing the promenade, upgrading the roads, and improving the signage. More needs to be done, but let us not make it seem like nothing has been done. That does not help the operators.”
The chief executive said some smaller, three-star hotels which were struggling to win business were being encouraged to invest in IT. This segment in the market was shifting from tour operator business to independent traveller bookings, particularly as it was skewed towards attracting the low cost guest.
Besides, Mr Formosa Gauci added, data provided by continental hotels had revealed that Malta had fared comparatively better than some competing destinations. Figures released last month by STR Global, the leading provider of market data to the global hotel industry, revealed that Malta achieved the second best occupancy for the year to date to July from among regional destinations including Spain, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Turkey.
At 57.9 per cent, Malta’s hotel occupancy was down 12 per cent. The average daily rate of €78.58 was just 4.6 per cent down. Revenue per available room stood at €45.53, down 16.1 per cent, again putting Malta’s hotels in second best place. Out of the seven destinations, Spain was the worst hit as visitor numbers from major markets like the UK and Germany dropped.
Mr Formosa Gauci explained EU-funded projects that were managed by the MTA would come on stream in the next two months to add much needed attractions to the Bugibba-St Paul’s Bay area. They included the €7.5 million development of a public aquarium attraction at Qawra Point; the €1.6 million upgrade of the promenade in St Paul’s Bay (Menqa to Wignacourt Tower and St Francis Road; and the upgrading of access near Qawra Point to the tune of €300,000 where the creation of a beach and ancillary facilities were earmarked at an investment of €2.2 million. The beach will take a little longer to materialise as complex environmental considerations had to be met.
The MRRA was also to focus on plans for the vicinity that included an afforestation project near Kennedy Grove and the restoration of the Salini salt pans.
The northern region also stood to benefit from a €250,000 fund launched with the Department of Local Government to assist councils in the organisation of activities in the lean months.
Following the front page story in The Times Business last week listing some hotels which had decided to close down for the winter to carry out maintenance works while business was slow, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association issued a strongly worded statement on Monday about the overall state of the area, “a disaster zone characterised by insufficient lighting, uneven pavements, broken roads, shabby and desolate surroundings”.
The statement called for public and private sectors to adopt a unified approach to find solutions and warned that unless there were ideas to transform lacklustre tourism zones, the closure of several hotels in arguably Malta’s second most important tourism zone could “easily prove to be the first domino of many to fall”.
In a joint statement with the Resources Ministry later that afternoon, the Tourism Secretariat pointed out that just four out of 61 collective accommodation properties in the north of the island intended to close for the winter. One, the Qawra Inn Hotel (formerly the Palm Court Hotel) had been ordered to close by an MTA enforcement order on the grounds that it had been left in a state of neglect. Its owner, Robbie Borg, had been contacted by The Times Business to ask about his business plans for the winter, coincidentally on the same day of the court hearing about the enforcement order.
Mr Formosa Gauci on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that relations between hoteliers and the authorities had soured, and stressed that dialogue on mitigating the effects of the downturn and seasonality on the sector was ongoing.
He pointed out that airline seat capacity had been increased as new and underserved routes operated by various airlines had been supported. This year, 11 new routes had been introduced to destinations including Bristol, Newcastle, Trapani, Edinburgh, Stockholm, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
The MTA had also sought to reduce seasonality by marketing through its segmentation strategy to generate greater interest in segments like history and culture and conference and incentive travel. Besides targeting tour operators, marketing efforts were also being directed to the independent traveller as the ‘last minute’ booking trend took further hold. The MTA’s initiative to support hotels in their advertising efforts saw it matched hotels’ spend for new advertising.
“It is not going to be an easy winter,” Mr Formosa Gauci conceded. “The lack of MICE business will not help but we have to start working on next summer now. The time for everyone in the industry to invest in upgrading the whole product is now.”