The new president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, Kevin DeCesare, has warned that the generally positive trend in tourism in the first quarter of this year should not detract the attention of the authorities and the industry in general from the emergence of new challenges for Malta.

He pointed out that while guest nights were up 13 percent in the first quarter of this year, they decreased by 14.9 percent in April so that guest night performance in the first four months of the year was up by 2.7 percent.

Mr DeCesare said his biggest concern was over the UK market (Malta’s largest) was was seeing a decrease.

He urged the government and the Malta Tourism Authority to consider offering more UK routes to low cost airlines, but stressed that the biggest effort should be placed on improving Malta’s tourism product and standards. Malta, he said, also needed up update its laws and regulations on standards of service, which he described as archaic.

During the first three months of this year three star hotels saw their occupancy levels rise by 19.4 percent. Five star hotels saw a gain of 10.8 percent but four star hotels were down by 4.2 percent, leaving an overall percentage occupancy gain of 3.0 percent.

All hotel categories reported achieving a better room rate.