The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) said today that it will be proposing to various stakeholders including NGOs, Government and the ORNIS committee to hold a national conference to discuss in an open forum the impact of hunting on the Maltese economy and way of life.

The MHRA said in a statement last Thursday “that the recent reported incidents related to illegal hunting has raised serious concerns among operators in the industry.”

The Association said that “hunting in Malta is highly controversial, especially among tourists, who, due to our island’s small size, easily come across hunters in the country side and also close to urban areas.”

The hunters responded to the MHRA by saying “what is damaging ecological tourism to Malta is not the hunting, but the “hype” around it. The Federation for Hunting & Conservation – Malta (FKNK) said it was not them or St. Hubert Hunters (KSU) that were saying that, but Merill Ltd., the only local licensed company engaged in eco- tourism, which works ‘hands-on’ with the countryside stakeholders, i.e. the hunters and the farmers.”

The FKNK said that “the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) is reportedly concerned about a possible “negative economic effect” of hunting. The MHRA has messed up, fooled no doubt by the abolitionist lobby.”

In today’s statement MHRA President, Mr Tony Zahra said that, “MHRA has always been on the forefront to discuss issues that impact the tourism industry and we are always focused on finding solutions through discussion. Maltese law allows for hunting to be practised at certain times of the year and we fully respect this fact, however as the association representing the Tourism industry in Malta, with hundreds of millions of Euros in investments and thousands of people in tourism related jobs, we must also take into consideration the economic implication that hunting might have on this industry.

“The reality is that Malta is a small island and disturbed tourists in today’s social media world can give Malta bad publicity. In a world facing serious economic turbulence MHRA’s main concern is to see how one can grow our economy to create new jobs and maintain our standards including public services such as in healthcare and pensions.”

The MHRA President continued, “any downturns in economic activity will be negatively felt immediately in the pockets of the Maltese people, however the opposite is also true. The Tourism industry has tremendous benefits for everyone as can be felt by everyone from the Easter season onwards and we have to be extremely careful in ensuring our guests keep coming to Malta in ever increasing numbers.”

MHRA states that “reality has to be faced by all concerned and called for a pragmatic approach since on this matter there is at stake the reputation and economic welfare of our country.”

“It is clear that there is a challenge in addressing the economic issues raised by operators in the tourism industry, and the issues raised by the hunting lobby group. MHRA is therefore calling upon Government and all stakeholders to attend a national conference and address how best to reconcile legal hunting practice with economic growth” “Malta needs to be smart to ensure that everyone is a winner and that there are no losers” concluded Mr Zahra

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