The new Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association Council, which was elected during last week’s 50th Annual General Meeting, met on Thursday to elect the Officials and MHRA designate representatives on the various boards and committees which MHRA will be represented on in the coming year. Mr. Kevin De Cesare was reconfirmed as the Association’s President for another year.
The new president thanked the outgoing council for their work and commitment during the past year and said that Malta is facing some challenging times in view of the negative economic situation in Malta’s core markets. The new Council will need to work closely with Government, Malta Tourism Authority and all other stakeholders to ensure that the Maltese islands are well marketed, seat capacity is maintained and possibly improved, and that serious commitment is taken in hand to improve ‘Product Malta’ to ensure that those visitors that do come to our shores have a positive experience and these promote further our tourism offer by word of mouth.
The new MHRA Council for 2008/2009 is now composed of Mr Kevin De Cesare as President, Mr. Winston J. Zahra as Senior Vice President, Ms. Claire Zammit Xuereb as Vice President and Mr. Joseph Attard as Treasurer. The other members of the Council are Mr Alexander Bonello, Mr. Mario de Celis, Mr. Noel Debono, Mr. Julian Diacono, Mr Alex Incorvaja, Mr. David Jaccarini, Mr. George Micallef and Mr. Tony Zahra.
The MHRA has been established since 1958 and today represents 70% of all hotels in Malta and 35% of all restaurants, collectively representing an investment of over Euros 1.1 billion and employing in excess of 20,000 people. For the past 50 years the MHRA has represented the interest of hoteliers and restaurateurs on the Island acting as a lobby group to ensure that the policy decisions taken on the Island are in line with what the tourism industry needs to flourish. For more information about the MHRA you may visit www.mhra.org.mt [1] or telephone (356) 21 318133.