The Ministry for Tourism in a statement this afternoon said that it “appeals once again to the Opposition to desist from politicising tourism as such an attitude would cause nothing but harm.”

“Tourist departures data for August released today by the National Statistics Office point to a hefty increase of 9.3% over August last year to reach the impressive level of 218,271 departing tourists.”

The Ministry pointed out that “This is the first time ever that the number of departing tourists in any given month has exceeded the 200,000 benchmark. Tourist expenditure during the month of August amounted to €246.2 million while the number of bed-nights in accommodation was of 2.16 million.”

August 2013 arrivals from the UK increased by 1,659 tourists to reach 55,028, the number of Italian tourists grew strongly by 6,037 to reach 42,387 while the number of German tourists also increased by 17.6% to reach 16,629. An additional 1,262 tourists have resulted in 19,686 French tourists visiting Malta in August this year, it said.

“In the light of these results which bring the cumulative tourism tally in the first eight months of this year to 1,067,204 tourists, 8.83 million bed-nights and € 986.5 million in expenditure,” the Ministry for Tourism said that it “feels that it is pertinent to respond to a number of unfounded and misleading allegations which a number of opposition spokesmen have recently made on the subject of tourism.”

The Ministry continued “that first and foremost Malta’s tourism industry should continue to be exempted from the status of a political football, which the opposition’s current attitude seems to want it to become.

“Over the past years successive Governments and Oppositions have respected a tacit agreement wherein all debates on the subject were carried out in a spirit of constructive criticism. It is hoped that the Opposition continues to respect this arrangement to the benefit of the tourism industry, its stakeholders and the overall Maltese economy. The politicisation of tourism can be nothing but detrimental to all.”

The Ministry added that “The Opposition has recently alleged that Government has no Plan for the Tourism Industry. The Ministry for Tourism has already stated on a number of occasions that it is continuing to follow the direction forthcoming from the Tourism Policy for the Maltese Islands 2012-2016 produced and published by the previous Administration.”

The Ministry said that it “would like to stress once again that it is continuing to implement the existing Policy with the additional emphasis on a number of particular areas which it feels were not being given enough impetus, namely:

• Achieving growth in the winter and shoulder months

• Opening new markets in the USA and China whilst going for strong growth in Russia

• Facilitating Visa arrangements in those markets whose growth potential is limited due to such issues.

• Lower energy costs for more profitability in the sector.

“Contrary to Opposition claims that the Maltese Authorities are not engaging in any discussions with the various international tourism companies including tour operators and airlines,” it said.

The Ministry said that it “would also like to clarify that the Malta Tourism Authority has been holding on-going discussions with tour operators throughout the entire summer. These discussions centre-round the offer of special incentives to operators to increase shoulder and winter month business to the Maltese Islands, with the most recent round of discussions having been held in last week’s Top Resa Fair in Paris with French tour operators to Malta.”

“The same applies to negotiations with airlines,” the Ministry added, “which have already resulted in a good increase in airline seat capacity for the coming Winter 2013/14 season. With regards to next summer, negotiations and discussions with existing and potential airline partners are taking place at this time of the year as normally happens.”

It said that a proactive approach has also been taken by the Ministry and the MTA in the case of the cruise sector. “The purpose of these discussions is to reverse decisions taken by the cruise companies two years ago, which led to MSC leaving Malta and Costa considering the reduction of its Malta operation.”

Minister Vella has also just returned back from a visit to UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai in Madrid., the Ministry said, “during the discussions that were held, Malta was not only congratulated on its sustained positive results but also for its innovative approach of merging the Tourism and Aviation Portfolios in a single Ministry.”

The Ministry concluded by saying that it “stresses the importance for all to concentrate their efforts on the challenges ahead and appeals once again to the Opposition to desist from politicising tourism as such an attitude would cause nothing but harm.”

Photographa – Alain Salvary.

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