Those in the tourism industry who invest in alternative energy stand to benefit from government funds as part of a new scheme of initiatives to help give the sector a boost, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said yesterday.
Speaking during a press conference, Mr Fenech said that the initiatives would help to give tourism in Malta a push in the right direction.
The government responsibility was to take action to tackle the global economic reality, by increasing economic activity. A way to do this was to give the tourism sector a boost, he said, as this sector had a ripple effect on others.
There had been intensive discussions with MHRA, he said, to discuss the best ways of helping the industry meet the challenges, within the framework of financial sustainability.
Primarily, Mr Fenech said, it was important to work at attracting tourists to Malta. Last year’s budget had already allocated funds to increase routes to Malta, which as a result would see hotels filling up more and other results.
There would also be initiatives to encourage those in the industry to invest further in alternative energy, he said. €3 million was allocated to this aim, with the potential of increasing this to some €5 million.
Those interested would also be assisted in the energy audit, which would help them to arrive at the best forms of alternative energy for them. Half the funds for this investment, which are up to a maximum €400,000, will be covered by the EU, he said.
Although there will be help for all those looking to expand and invest, Mr Fenech added that any hotels still experiencing difficulties will then be able to approach a specifically set up task force, which will look into the best way to tackle their situation.
They have also overturned the idea of a 50c bed tax, in favour of a fixed eco contribution of €3.50, which each tourist will have to pay. The details are still to be worked out, he said, but it will not be implemented before 1 June 2010.
The reasoning, Mr Fenech said, was that most tourists who come over for a long stay are those who opt for cheaper accommodation, while the more comfortably off come for short stays in hotels.
Although 2009 was tough, Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said, Malta was already seeing positive signs as tourist arrivals had increased by some 10.4 per cent for last December, and this trend continued in January.
There had also been an increase in guest nights registered and a 16 per cent rise in tourist expenditure.
The routes operating to and from Malta also had to increase, he said, and in fact there had already been a number of increases. Air Malta would be operating two new routes to Turin and Genova, Easyjet would be flying to Fiumicino, Malpensa and Liverpool and Ryanair would be flying to Leeds/Bradford and Bournemouth.
Bmibaby would be flying to the East Midlands and Norwegian Airlines to Oslo and Copenhagen.
Ryanair had reached an agreement with the government, he said, and would be operating a base from Malta, which would mean the introduction of six new routes. This would doubtless see an increase in the number of tourists, he said.
Continued investment in advertising was also important, he added, and had to come from sources other than the MTA.
The tourism world is changing, he said, as people are moving away from tour operator organised holidays. Hotels have to advertise abroad, he said, and this was where the Joint Marketing Scheme came in.
This scheme, which matched every extra euro the company spent on advertising, was introduced to tackle the crisis but it had been extended and even increased. The government would also be subsidising 3 per cent of interest on loans taken to refurbish and expand, so as to keep people investing.
George Micallef, MHRA president, said their concern over the bed tax was that hotel owners might end up paying the bed tax themselves, and had suggested the eco-contribution to avoid this.
Although they were still concerned by the challenging year ahead, the initiatives were a positive step.
SOURCE: The Malta INDEPENDENT ONLINE |
