STATEMENT BY THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM

The Ministry of Tourism notes that the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Dr. Alfred Sant, has gone on record and stated that EU membership would make holidays in Malta more expensive and that Malta would therefore lose its competitive edge.

The Ministry of Tourism wishes to inform:

• that EU membership would immediately mean an end to the UK’s discriminatory departure tax thereby making holidays and holiday packages from our largest source market cheaper by £15 to £30 and therefore more price competitive.
• that Dr. Sant, albeit before audiences as varied as fishermen, breeders and farmers, has repeatedly insisted that membership would result in cheaper food which again would make holidays to Malta more price competitive.
• that Dr. Sant should know that EU countries are free to establish their own rates of VAT and that the EU, conscious of tourism’s employment potential, urges member states to keep tourism related VAT rates to the lowest level.