The president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants' Association said today that Malta has "lost a lot" of repeat business in tourism.

Kevin DeCesare was speaking during a meeting with Labour Labour Joseph Muscat.

The meeting was part of a series which Dr Muscat is holding with constituted bodies to discuss their expectations of the Labour Party as well of the forthcoming budget.

When he spoke on tourism, Dr Muscat underlined the importance of Malta remaining competitive in an increasingly tough environment and said productivity was key to achieving this purpose. He also stressed the importance of the environment for tourism.

Dr Muscat said the country needed to maximise the returns from the investment it was making.

Mr DeCesare said the first half of the year was positive for Malta's tourism industry. The third quarter was challenging and growth had slowed. The industry was now seriously concerned for the future, not least because of the financial turmoil and economic slowdown in some of the source markets.

The MHRA president said marketing remained very important, but Malta also needed to improve its product. Bad publicity by word-of-mouth was worse than a lack of marketing, he said, adding that hoteliers had seen a decline in repeat business.

The meeting was attended by, among others, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, Labour spokesman on tourism.