(Adds ministry statement)

Tourism is one of the pillars with which to create a roadmap for economic growth, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.

He was speaking during a visit to the Hotel Excelsior, as part of the preparatory works for the PL congress in September.

Dr Muscat said the next step forward was the creation of a better and more coordinated strategy that would include Air Malta, low cost airlines, tour operators, online businesses, cruise liner terminals and Gozo.

In a reply, the Tourism Ministry said said that the government was successfully implementing a policy which gave the country a record number of arrivals, bed nights and income from tourism.

This was a strategy that was bearing results but the PL wanted to change it. However, it was not saying how. The PL should explain its policy, the ministry said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.