Prime Minister Robert Abela announced that the government in the coming time will be disposed to talk about a reform in favor of higher standards in the tourism sector.
Dr Abela was addressing another pre-Budget consultation meeting, this time with the Maltese Association of Hotels and Restaurants, the MHRA.
In fact, the Prime Minister supported this as he also noted the principle of sustainability that the same MHRA brought forward in its document with proposals for the Budget for the next year.
The Prime Minister talked about how, in this way, this convergence will serve well as a solid basis for important discussions that must now take place so that the tourism sector in our country continues to be strengthened in a wise way against a background of new priorities in our country.
During a visit he made inside the main Corinthia hotel in Attard, the Prime Minister was told of a substantial regeneration investment that was made in parts of it, including in Villa Corinthia, the entrance of the hotel and even a number of rooms.
During the meeting with the MHRA Dr Abela pointed out the importance of this commitment in favor of continuous improvement in the tourism sector in general with an emphasis on quality and not simply the number of arrivals.
The Prime Minister also noted that the expenditure by tourists is very positive in the last year, with this it is expected that it will continue to be supported even as a result of a strong strategy by the Maltese Tourism Authority. He said that then there were remarkable developments in the sector against seasonality, with arrivals of tourists not only at the height of the sector. Dr. Abela reiterated the government’s commitment that there will now be more work in order to attract quality tourism to our country which, while leaving a healthy income, better serves the realities and needs of our country.
“While we want to continue consolidating the success we have achieved in this sector now let’s look forward together to make it a more sustainable one with higher standards. We have already started, we did it through the skills step but we have to continue. The skills pass was a reform that we worked on together. It was definitely not an easy road but we got there with dialogue. There is much more to be done. Open to discussion, committed to making decisions and implementing,” concluded the Prime Minister.
Accompanying the Prime Minister for this consultation meeting were the Ministers Owen Bonnici, Anton Refalo, Byron Camilleri, Clayton Bartolo, Clyde Caruana and Chris Bonett, the Parliamentary Secretaries Andy Ellul, Alicia Bugeja Said and Glenn Bedingfield and the Head of the Secretariat within the Office of the Prime Minister Mark Mallia.
Photos: DOI/OPM
