The haphazard way in which works are being carried out on Castille Square must lead tourists to think “they landed in some ISIS country,” acting MHRA President Tony Zahra quipped today.
Closing the presentation of the BOV MHRA Q1 survey results, Mr Zahra said that no one appears to be in overall control of the works, and there should be someone on site making sure the place is looking tidy.
This is just one of the infrastructural problems currently faced in Malta, as Mr Zahra said the Qawra area is very hard to access at the moment.
Not content with the 25 per cent reduction in energy tariffs for businesses, Mr Zahra vowed that the MHRA will be pressing the government for further reduction in light of falling fuel costs and increases in energy production efficiency.
He questioned how the “massive” amount of money that has been injected into Air Malta has yet to reap results, and why the airline is not turning a profit like other airlines given the increase in inbound tourists.
Mr Zahra warned that the hotel industry is facing stiff competition from the rise in private accommodation being offered through websites like AirBnB.
He demanded that those providing private accommodation should be licensed and held to the same regulatory standards that hotels are.
People are quite happy staying in private accommodation he said, therefore the hotel industry needs to “get its act together” and see how to best compete.
Presenting the first quarter results for the hotel industry, David Bonett from Deloitte said the performance of the hotel industry has continued to improve, with tourist arrivals and guest nights having increased when compared to the first quarter of 2014.
Overall tourist arrivals are up by 7.7 per cent, with a 5.8 per cent increase in guest nights.
Occupancy rates increase in both 5-star and 4-star hotels, while 3-star hotels registered a slight drop.
The improvements were driven primarily by significant improvement registered by 5-star and 4-star hotels, which reversed the trend of reporting losses in the low-season by recording Q1 profits for the first time in the last five-year period.
This is a significant milestone which signals a potential reduction in seasonality.
Whilst the three-star sector does not appear to have benefited from occupancy growth its improved revenue and managed cost-based led to a 29 per cent reduction in Q1 losses.