The Finance Minister’s remarks on the hospitality industry and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association on Tuesday were hostile and uncalled for, the association said.

Addressing a press conference on the operations of his ministry last year, the minister had said that the claims of losses made by the hotels and restaurants sector had to be verified.

He also said that businesses should not be treated like social cases.

The MHRA said this morning the minister was in the best position to verify the state of affairs of the hospitality industry as he has full access to financial and economic statistics.

The minister’s statement, it said, seemed to imply that the official statistics published by the NSO, which fell under his ministry, and those of Eurostat, should be doubted.

The MHRA said it never asked the government to treat businesses like social cases, and it was not aware to what the minister was referring to when he said so.

“It appears that the minister has not yet come to grasp that the problem of declining profitability affecting the tourism industry and indeed other industries, has been brought about because of the prevailing market conditions, stiffer competition and because of the substantial increases in the operating costs, some of which are government induced.“

Hotels were constrained to forgo a considerable amount of their profit margins in favour of price competitivity, and if this trend continued, it would seriously undermine the investment capability of this sector, it said.

“Government surely appreciates that the industry is not in a position to simply adopt a ‘full recovery model’ as was applied in the case of Enemalta, as we would run out of business over night.”