The opening of the new Le Meridien hotel in St Julian’s on 1 March will create 240 new jobs, 180 of them on a full-time basis, Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said yesterday.

Speaking in Sliema, the minister said that this year, another three projects involving five-star hotels will be inaugurated and these are expected to create hundreds of new jobs.

The tourism sector employs the highest number of people on part-time jobs as their primary form of income.

“In fact, there was an increase of part-time jobs from 1,952 in 1997 to 5,176 in September 2005,” he said.

Part-time jobs as a secondary form of income decreased slightly from 3,277 in 1997 to 3,189 in September 2005.

During this period part-time employment increased from 5,229 to 8,365.

Dr Zammit Dimech pointed out that between end of 2004 and September 2005 employment in the tourism sector increased by 1,009 – from 15,716 to 16,725.