The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association firmly believes that hotel and restaurant business operators should benefit from the new EU structural funds schemes for the tourism sector, MHRA president Justin Zammit Tabona said yesterday.
“We believe that the tourism industry deserves its fair portion of the structural funds pot for Malta within the incoming EU budgetary period kicking off in January 2007,” he added.
Speaking at the MHRA conference entitled “Pathway to Growth: Mapping the EU way for the Maltese Tourism Industry”, Mr Zammit Tabona said that the association firmly believes that the EU does offer the way forward for our tourism industry to grow and flourish over the coming years in the ever-more international competitive environment within which our hotels and restaurant businesses have to operate on a daily basis.
“The EU pathway for the Maltese tourism industry is a complex trail, a pathway of regulatory, socio-
economic and, last but not least, funding opportunities. From our regular contacts with our membership base, it is clearly evident that our tourism business operators, irrespective of their market segment and size, are extremely interested in tapping EU funds in order to bolster their competitive edge on the national as well as international tourism market,” Mr Zammit Tabona said.
He said that the MHRA has understood the legitimate demands of its members to provide a better and more consistent information channel on EU-related issues, in particular, on the availability of structural funds and other direct EU funding avenues available for our tourism business operators
“Our tourism industry operators and not least our MHRA members are ready and most willing to grab the opportunities. The success take-up rates of the tourism grant schemes offered under the first structural funds aid package for Malta between 2004-2006 are a clear signal message that our tourism business operators are on the look-out for funding opportunities and have the right ideas and the practical initiative necessary to develop real success stories out of what might at first appear to be complex and lengthy application forms,” Mr Zammit Tabona added.
He said that the EU funding paths for the tourism industry are not exclusively restricted to the structural funds adding that there is a myriad of direct EU funding programmes that can also be tapped by our tourism business operators.
“We, at MHRA, believe that tourism is being put high on the national political agenda but nevertheless we need to further strengthen the message that we need to continually sustain the development and further improvement of our national tourism product thanks to enhanced collaboration between all the tourism industry stakeholders,” Mr Zammit Tabona concluded.
In his address, Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said that the government and the private sector must be dynamic and ensure that no opportunities are lost where EU Affairs are concerned. Minister Zammit Dimech said that it is crucial that consultative sessions with the private sector continue to take place.
“We must not feel that this is something beyond us, but neither should we assume that this will happen on its own. EU affairs are now part of our daily lives and should be given the necessary importance they merit. They must be integrated in the running of our day-to-day business and operations and also in the work performed by Associations as you are,” he said.