Malta’s tourism sectors continue to report improvements on most key performance indicators in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year.
The BOV-MHRA Survey Q1 2014, carried out by Deloitte, showed that all sectors reported reductions in their low season gross operating losses.
Overall tourist arrivals increased by 7.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year. Collective accommodation saw an 8.1 per cent increase in arrivals but a 0.5 drop in guest nights.
In contrast, guest nights increased by 16.4 per cent in private accommodation where arrivals increased by 7.2 per cent.
This could be due to an increase in expats, people staying with family and friends and tourists opting for rentals.
Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said he was committed to working towards sustainability and listed various measures including plans to slash utility rates and amend height limitations for hotels.
MHRA president Paul Bugeja spoke about ways to improve the sector. He spoke about turning back the VAT rate to five per cent and restructuring Air Malta to follow the BOV model.
He also stressed on the need to ensure that the Maltese identity was promoted by engaging more Maltese as front-liners in the industry.
Helena Egan, from TripAdvisor, said that between 2012 and 2013 there had been a 26 per cent growth of the amount of times Malta was viewed as a destination on the travelling website that attracts 260 million people each month.
The site had 176 hotels listed, 97 bed-and-breakfasts and 1,503 rentals among the Maltese registrations. Some 67 per cent of the property registered was registered by owner. The site received a 31 per cent management response rate.
The site had 417 winners on Malta of the certificate of excellence but not enough celebrated this.