Partit Demokratiku has urged the Tourism Ministry to give the necessary guarantees for an attempt to be made to salvage this year's airshow.
In a statement, it expressed regret that this year’s Malta International Airshow had to be cancelled due to a lack of interest from the Tourism Ministry.
In a statement this morning, it said that any major international event requiring participation and co-ordination with organisations abroad needed months of planning and a clear commitment from the relative authorities to make it happen.
Malta, it said, had a unique and multi-faceted tourism product and every event, historical site and aspect of culture contributed to that product. “We neglect them at our peril.”
Extraordinary occasions like Valletta 2018 helped promote Product Malta, but they were one-offs. “It is the regular annual events that sustain our tourism industry,” PD said.
It added that now was not the time to neglect events such as the airshow but it was the time to encourage its further development and growth.
It urged the Tourism Minister to reply and give the guarantees required to the Malta Aviation Society so that, if it was at all possible, the event could be salvaged.
“We also urge his ministry and all other state authorities to find ways to cut bureaucracy and make it easier for these events to be held by creating a single office that co-ordinates all permits, legal requirements, and organisational needs so that similar mishaps will not happen again.”