The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs (MRRA) and the Parliamentary Secretariat for Tourism refer to the Press Release issued yesterday by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA). This news release refers to an article published in The Times Business of Thursday, the 8th of October, in which it is stated that five hotels in the Bugibba area, namely The Qawra Inn Hotel (formerly The Palm Court Hotel), Seashells Resort (Suncrest), Primera Hotel, Palazzin Hotel and Coral Hotel, will be closing down over the winter period.

The MHRA statement regrettably fails to point out that The Qawra Inn Hotel has been ordered to close in terms of an enforcement order issued by the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) on the grounds that the property has been left in a state of neglect, in breach of the applicable hotel standard regulations. This enforcement order is being contested in Court by Mr Robbie Borg, the owner of the hotel. It is no coincidence that Mr Borg chose to give his comments to The Times Business on the same day that he had the Court hearing to try and lift the Enforcement Order.

The MHRA statement further fails to point out that The Seashells Resort (Suncrest), the Primera Hotel and the Coral Hotel will each be closing for three (3) months, four (4) weeks and six (6) weeks respectively, to carry out general upkeep and maintenance.

Nor does the MHRA statement point out that the decision by The Palazzin Hotel to close down for three (3) months is in accordance with its five-year old policy which therefore included closure during the two record years of 2007 and 2008.

Most regrettable is the fact that the MHRA statement seems to give the indication that the majority of the hotels in the Bugibba / Qawra / St Paul’s Bay are closing when in fact the hotels indicated in The Times Business report that are closing for maintenance works represent only 4 (four) properties out of 61 collective accommodation properties licensed in the northern area and that 93 % of these licensed establishments and hotel beds have chosen to operate throughout the whole year.

The closure of these hotels to carry out needed refurbishment and maintenance during the low season has to be seen within the context of government’s drive towards encouraging operators in the tourism industry, to invest in upgrading and refurbishment programmes. This drive by government is taken in the context of surveys carried out by the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) amongst tourists about the need for an upgrade in the facilities offered by the lower category hotels.

With this in mind, the government has during this year issued a number of funding and subsidy schemes aimed at assisting these same operators. These include:

– the subsidy scheme on interest rates on loans taken for refurbishment and extension projects by hotels;

– the moratorium offered by banks following government intervention on capital repayments for loans taken by hotels;

– the €10 million EU fund grant scheme aimed at co-financing sustainable tourism projects by private industry; as well as

– an MTA fund for additional advertising by hotel operators as a result of which, the MTA will match euro for euro any incremental marketing done by operators.

The MRRA and the Parliamentary Secretariat for Tourism would also like to refer to the comments made by MHRA regarding “the overall state” of the Bugibba / Qawra area.

Before the summer season a programme of road surfacing and major patching worth €500,000 was affected in the following Bugibba / Qawra roads:

Triq l-Ibhra, Triq l-Imhar, Triq Quintinos; Triq it-Turisti, Triq il-Qalb ta Gesù; Dawret il-Qawra, Islet Promenade, Triq it-Trunciera; Triq il-Plajja tal-Bognor; Triq Sant’ Antnin, Triq Gulju, Dawret il-Gzejjer and Triq il-Halel. Works on Triq id-Dolmen and Triq l-Imsell will be carried out in the next few weeks.

General maintenance of the Qawra and Bugibba promenade was done before the summer by the MRRA and the St Paul’s Bay Local Council. The closure of open sites was also carried out by the MRRA. Over the past few years, various projects were carried out to improve the general product of the Bugibba / Qawra / St Paul’s Bay area. These include the perched beach in Bugibba at a cost of over €1 million which has obtained the Blue Flag Certificate.

Over the next few months, works on various EU funded projects worth over €12 million will commence which include, the construction of a new promenade from St Paul’s Bay to the Menqa at the Gillieru area, the construction of a visitor attraction comprising a public aquarium at the Fra Ben area, and the upgrading of beach facilities along Qawra.

To conclude, the MRRA and the Parliamentary Secretariat for Tourism wish that instead of sweeping statements and easy generalisations, the MHRA and its members together with other stakeholders continue to work together to address the various challenges lying ahead.

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