Tourism Minister Dr. Michael Refalo spells out Policy proposals for Hotel and Leisure Development

Minister for Tourism Michael Refalo today visited the soon-to-be-opened Vivaldi Hotel in St. Julian's and was taken round by the management on an inspection tour to the hotel's rooms and facilities. Dr. Refalo congratulated the owners on a job well done and wished them, as well as their staff, much success and personal satisfaction.

The Minister took the opportunity to join the debate and gave his views whether Malta has sufficient bed capacity to cater for present and future needs. The Minister said that one should first of all make a distinction between an adequate number of beds and an adequate number of good beds. Good applies to all categories. So long as the relative norms were complied with it was necessary to have good bedstock all along the whole spectrum of Malta's hospitality offer.

The Minister added that the Four-Star category was the one which during the last decade had expanded most, from 6,500 beds in 1990 to 10,700 at present. The year 2000 should see another 1000 coming on stream. The reason for this increase was that many owners of Three-Star hotels had opted to enlarge and refurbish their properties to climb one step further up the ladder of excellence. Other properties had been converted from other accomodation units to Four- Star hotels.

This decade has not only seen the emergence of a new class of Five-Star hotels, with close to 3000 beds, which enables Malta to host the largest and most prestigious of conferences, but also many new and refurbished Four-Star properties as well as equivalent aparthotels and complexes which together account for a further 14,000 beds.

So the question is do Malta and Gozo need more beds? But then is that a question which Government should answer? Should it not be up to the private sector to address? It is up to the entrepreneurs to decide whether further hotel investment is worthwhile. It is up to the institutions which finance such enterprises to assess and evaluate whether the market can take further competition.

While I have every encouragement for new investment had I the money, land and expertise, I would think twice about putting my money into a new hotel. Investing in an already existing property, refurbishing it and possibly adding to it, yes, but starting up from scratch would be a different proposition.

I would however say a very loud ‘yes' and invest in tourism, find a niche, an attraction, a facility, complementary to the accomodation sector, something new. Tourism is a dynamic industry and new and different ideas are always welcome.

The Minister said that a report on existing incentives had been drawn up and in consonance with Government's electoral pledges, it was now incumbent upon him, in consultation with the industry, to promote a review of these incentives focusing more on today's needs rather than what was felt necessary in the sixties, to successfully kick-start the hospitality industry.