Earlier today the MHRA released the BOV MHRA Hotel Survey by Deloitte for the second quarter of 2010. When presenting the survey results, MHRA President Mr George Micallef explained that the results for Q2 reaffirmed that the recovery in tourism has continued to gain momentum and has resulted in commendable improvements being registered in all the key tourism performance indicators.

Mr Micallef went on to say that, “The improved results vindicate the decisive decisions taken earlier this year to continue investing further in tourism and that increased seat capacity has resulted in improved tourist arrivals and additional tourist expenditure of just under Euro50 million in six months. This incremental expenditure has clearly been one of the contributory factors spurring on the local economic recovery. In is interesting to note that approximately 38% of the incremental expenditure was enjoyed by operators outside the hotel sector.”

The survey results show that in quarter 2 occupancy levels improved across all 3 hotel categories with the best improvements being registered by 3 and 5 star categories, which had been worst hit by last year’s downturn. Notwithstanding the significant progress registered, it was only the 5-star hotel category which managed to exceed 2008 occupancy levels.

The year-to-date occupancy trends followed the same patterns as those reported for quarter 2, with the noticeable difference that even the 5-star category lagged behind the occupancy levels registered in 2008.

Albeit at a slower pace than occupancy levels, Average Achieved Room Rates also improved in each of the 3 categories for both the quarter and on a year-to-date basis. Nonetheless the rate improvements where not sufficient to make good for the decline in rate experienced last year and except for the 3-star category, remained below 2008 levels.

Without playing down the significance of the progress registered to-date, Mr Micallef stressed that the revenue improvement is still not sufficient to make good for the loss of revenue experienced in 2009 and the sharp increase in operating costs in 2010, which are eroding the competiveness of Malta as a value for money destination.

Mr Micallef also expressed his concern that, “Up to June 2010, notwithstanding the improved revenue trends, Hotel Gross Operating Profits remained 25% below the average levels of 2006-8 and up to 45% lower than the best year results.”

“Declining profits make it increasingly difficult for hoteliers to find disposable capital needed for re-investment, and Government’s delay in launching the energy-saving scheme and 3% interest subsidy on refurbishment programmes, which had been agreed with MHRA last March, is not helping the situation.”

In his concluding remarks Mr Micallef stressed that, “If we want to ensure that our hotel industry remains on a solid footing we must continue to push for further increases in tourist arrivals and must finds realistic ways of containing costs.This is a time for crucial difficult decisions to be taken and I augur that a cautious but sensible approach will prevail”

Permalink: BOV MHRA Hotel Survey shows toursim is gaining momentum