Marsaxlokk restaurateurs say they are losing business due to embellishment works carried out in the peak of summer, prompting the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association to criticise the project's "bad planning, bad communication and bad timing".
The owners of restaurants lining the promenade were hoping to make up for a bad winter this summer but their business has been "killed", literally going "up in smoke" due to the construction work, the MHRA said.
Establishment owners were only informed days before the works started around mid-May, meaning they could not make provisions to soften the inconvenience, the association said.
Despite existing legal notices that prohibit such works in summer, it appeared that the government was the first to contravene them, the MHRA said, adding that the result was tour operators avoiding sending tourists to the area.
While the MHRA was totally in favour of product upgrading, the complete lack of consultation with stakeholders at the planning stage was causing other problems to surface as the project progressed. "The projects are good but their implementation is wrong," it said, pointing at the crisis management that ensued.
Advance planning would have avoided issues from cropping up and the lost business was due primarily to the decrease in potential capacity. Restaurants that had a concession to set up tables on the promenade had been stopped from doing so during the works, the MHRA said, pointing out that they had few covers indoors, being such small units.
Works are expected to carry on throughout the summer and operators are complaining they are progressing at a slow pace.
The MHRA had also expressed its "astonishment" at works in Xlendi during the summer and defended restaurateurs in Valletta, where paving is under way.
"If they were informed in advance, their staff could have gone on leave and they could have taken the opportunity to undertake refurbishment projects," it said.
The Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU has also complained about the "tremendous" loss of business in the capital city, calling for compensation for shop owners due to the fact that Valletta is "one extensive construction site".
"Tourists are being warned by cruise liners and tour operators not to visit Valletta because it is a danger zone for pedestrians," it said.