The government needs to rethink the increases in water and electricity rates in view of the lowering of oil prices and the current financial market conditions, according to the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association.
“Once the government was so prompt in raising the cost of utilities and fuel when the price of oil was escalating, isn’t it time to have some form of downward levelling, as was promised several times and never yet delivered?” association president Kevin De Cesare asked.
He was speaking at a presentation of the latest hotel occupancy survey, sponsored by BoV and carried out by Deloitte.
Mr De Casare said that there were challenges ahead which needed to be met with unity, government support and investment.
He warned against a false sense of security based on the positive results in tourist arrivals between July and September this year.
The summer results were “not as bad as many feared,” he said, and despite major declines from the UK and French markets, overall tourist arrivals and length of stay actually increased compared to last year.
However, the volume gains did not filter through to hotels since many tourists made use of non-hotel accommodation, so all types of hotels registered lower occupancy levels.
Tourist arrivals declined in October in what was seen as being a clear warning of a challenging period ahead.
“The real negative impact of the global market turmoil only began to hit home in October when guest-night generation decreased by 12.3 per cent.”
Mr DeCesare said it was time to improve the tourism product by cleaning up the streets, improving the state of the roads, improving street furniture and removing bottle shops, as well as rebuilding the opera house and city gate.
MHRA official Winston Zahra said Malta needed to tap into the changes in demand, by marketing its product cleverly.
“These are very delicate times, which call for unity and the avoidance of unnecessary controversies. We are banking on the government’s continued full support towards the tourism sector to help us make it through the challenging times ahead.
“At this moment in time we need an injection of capital expenditure in the country, we need to soften the blow on utility tariffs and the country needs a soft landing.”
The MHRA called for more marketing, more support for established and emerging routes, sensible pricing strategies and the implementation of an immediate and aggressive product upgrade.
The survey shows that the overall performance for the summer months was in line with that registered over the past few years.
Up to September this year Malta saw a rise in tourist arrivals and guest generation figures by 7.8 percent and 4.8 percent respectively. But the increase in guest nights seems to have been taken up in non-hotel accommodation, since in the third quarter of the year the three main hotel categories reported lower occupancy levels when compared to last year.
However, all categories reported improved Average Achieved Room Rates.