Malta has to project a business-as-usual image to protect the tourism industry from suffering further blows due to its proximity to the Libyan conflict, according to the president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, George Micallef.
The industry was already affected by the uprising in Libya and had experienced a few cancellations and a slowdown in bookings, Mr Micallef told a seminar for the restaurants’ sector, yesterday.
The association is carrying out a survey among members and will meet Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco tomorrow to see what can be done to address the situation.
Most importantly, Mr Micallef said, the island had to dissociate itself from the crisis as people were cancelling bookings because they had the wrong perception of what was going on here.
“These are not easy times but if we work together in this sector, we will overcome them,” Dr de Marco, said stopping short of mentioning Libya in his closing address.
Tourists constituted about 40 per cent of restaurant clientele, he added, pointing out visitors preferred to book on a bed and breakfast basis, or bed-only stays, and choosing to eat in restaurants.
The profile of clients was changing and about 60 per cent of the expenditure in restaurants was generated by Maltese nationals. Also, tourists were now coming from different countries. Over the last three years, for example, the number of Italian tourists boomed from less than 100,000 a year to 250,000, making Italy the second largest tourist exporter for Malta, according to Dr de Marco.
However, restaurant owners complained that, with about 180 students graduating from the Institute of Tourism Studies each year, the sector was struggling to make ends meet in terms of human resources.
The institute, which costs taxpayers about €3 million a year, has a very limited output, according to Alex Mifsud, who headed one of the working groups at the seminar.
The working group, involving restaurant and hotel owners from Malta and Gozo, questioned whether the entry criteria for ITS should be lowered to meet the demand. “Some people with lower education levels may still have the flare to work,” Mr Mifsud said.
The sector was competing for human resources over the finance, IT and gaming sectors, which potentially could offer better pay and more attractive and fixed working hours, he said. This concern was echoed by others, including Charles Martin, who said there were not enough short-term courses for the sector.
Such problems were being addressed by the institute, which was reviewing its programme of studies to make it more attractive, ITS director Adrian Mamo explained.
A number of measures were taken to address the human resources problem in the sector, he added, including the introduction of tourism studies at form three level and restructuring the Alumni Association for ex-ITS students for them to help make courses attractive.
On top of that, the ITS, which had about 480 full-time and 580 part-time students, was putting more focus on soft skills like knowledge of local produce and honing in on the way placements were assigned.
The new structures would be launched in October, he said.
Meanwhile, a Euro barometer survey showed the restaurant sector was faring well in terms of prices as compared to other European countries, Mr Micallef said. In spite of this, the general perception of clients was that restaurants here were expensive.
The profit generated ranked among the lowest, due mainly to high overheads, meaning many restaurants were struggling to make ends meet, he added.
The points raised in the seminar will be taken into account in an in-depth study by the MHRA and the Malta Tourism Authority.