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30.01.2020 10 INTERVIEW 'Without a tourism vision, Malta MASSIMO COSTA How was 2019 for the hotel industry in Malta? One has to first consider how the industry in general, worldwide, per- formed. Last year, the industry grew by around 4% globally. Malta did a bit better, with an industry growth or about 5%. e reason why I make the point about the global industry's performance is that, generally, the sector has been growing all over the world, not only in Malta. What we've been achieving in Malta is very good, and we've slightly outperformed the global industry's av- erage. As the expression goes, however, "a rising tide lifts all boats". So, Malta did well, but the reality is that the mar- ket was improving everywhere and we must remember that we form part of the world. Did the political turmoil at the end of the year affect in any way bookings and reservations both at hotels and restaurants over the holiday season? In terms of accommodation, the po- litical situation does not appear to have had an effect. In reality, whilst what has been going on has been of great interest to the people in Malta, the impact it has had on the average person living abroad has been relatively small. If you take our biggest market, the UK, British citizens were more interested in what was hap- pening in their local scene, such as the allegations on Prince Andrew and the events surrounding Brexit. I don't think Malta featured heavily when it came to most holiday-makers. e protests were peaceful, so there wasn't much which would keep potential visitors away from the island. When it comes to restaurants, it's a different matter, however, and the pro- tests did have an effect here. e reports we've received showed that restaurants in Valletta were particularly badly hit in the first few weeks of December, but recovered over Christmas and New Year. Restaurants outside Valletta were patchy in so far as how they were affect- ed. We've had some reporting that they were badly hit in the first three weeks of the protests, while others said they wer- en't affected at all. And even restaurants in the same locality reported different impacts, with some saying they were hit badly and other saying they weren't. ere was no clear pattern, except in Valletta, were restaurants were general- ly badly impacted. There has been talk in recent years of the Maltese hotel industry reaching saturation point – on a number of occasions you've mentioned the risk of over-tourism. Are we there yet? Have we reached saturation point? e MHRA has been asking for a sci- entific carrying capacity exercise to be conducted for quite a while, but it has not yet been done. And we will only be able to understand whether we have reached, surpassed or are still to reach saturation point once such a scientific exercise is carried out. Any other way of gauging this will be very subjective, and one's views on the matter could be challenged because there is no empiri- cal way of verifying them. However, it is a fact that Malta only has 316 km² of land, and around 33% of it is already built up – one of the highest percentages in the world. In view of this, I feel that we have to start being care- ful and smarter, and aiming more for a quality product. e idea is to have the same number of people visiting Malta, but with the ability to spend more. We are often told that the focus of the industry should be on attracting higher-priced tourism. Does this mean we should only have four- and five-star tourists? Let's talk about quality rather than price. Quality has a value – you can still have two or three-star hotels, but these should aim to be the best hotels they can be in their class in Europe. Consequently, they would be offering a quality service, and quality translates into a better return on their investment. A three-star hotel doesn't need to offer certain luxuries, such as spas and so on, but it still needs to have hospitable and intelligent staff. Having a three-star hotel doesn't mean the service quality should go down. In this regard, I feel Malta is lacking in quality somewhat. If you look at the res- taurants in Valletta, for instance, very few differentiate the product they offer. ey all seem to be offering the same thing. Quality means that you stand out from your competitor by offering some- thing better and different. Does the MHRA wish to see the end of the lower-starred hotels? No, it does not. e MHRA wishes to see a greater push for quality across all hotels. Malta is often home to serial copycats, especially in business. After the first boutique hotel popped up in Malta some five years ago, applications for similar developments keep on being filed all over the island. Is there such a demand to justify these? And how are boutique hotels hurting mainstream hotel destinations? Typically, a boutique hotel would have around 10 to 15 rooms, while a main- stream hotel would have about 300. is Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association chief Tony Zahra speaks to BusinessToday about the urgent need for a carrying capacity exercise for Malta and the importance of having a vision for tourism

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