The executive chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority, Romwald Lungaro Mifsud announced his resignation from the position that he has occupied for the last 15 months yesterday.

The resignation comes in the wake of calls for him to do so by hoteliers who have harshly complained that the tourism industry is in great difficulty and not reaching established targets.

But Mr Lungaro Mifsud yesterday defended his work at the authority when he addressed reporters, stating that with the help of his team, he managed to see through the complex restructuring process and that now it was time to move on.

“The job was no mean feat but I can say that hand on heart, the mission was accomplished. We accomplished a huge number of tasks including the simplifying of lines of communication, putting people where they are most productive and going ahead with ongoing training programmes,” he said.

Mr Lungaro Mifsud added that all this had been achieved within the space of 15 months, notwithstanding the fact that his contract was for two years. Brushing off the recent criticism over the lacklustre tourism figures, he said that there was no need to create unnecessary panic, however he lamented the fact that low cost airlines had still not come to Malta.

“I am quite sure that we shall not see any exponential growth in tourism figures for this year but we can still achieve the target of 150,000 more tourists by the end of 2007. From the information I have, it appears that low cost airlines will begin operating in the spring of next year but we have to remain cautious so as not to lose our tour operator business, which is 60 per cent of our total business.”

Asked if he was satisfied with the government’s input into the tourism industry, Mr Lungaro Mifsud said that the government had done all it could to improve the situation and was acting with caution to ensure that the country continues achieving good results without losing its core markets.

Reacting to a question on whether his resignation had anything to do with the poor tourism figures released recently, he said that this was definitely not the case as he had tendered his resignation two months ago, but this had not been accepted by the minister and the Prime Minister. He said that on the second attempt, his resignation was accepted with regret.

Mr Lungaro Mifsud said that the MTA would be reverting to a chairman and chief executive, similar to the positions that were in place before he took over the restructuring task. He said that in the forthcoming two months, he would be doing his utmost so that the MTA finds the right person for the challenging position of CEO.

Mr Lungaro Mifsud’s resignation had been widely expected in the past days after leading hoteliers Winston J. Zahra Jnr and Michael Zammit Tabona had publicly called on him to relinquish his position due to the appalling tourism figures. Mr Zahra had said that Tourism and Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech should also resign.

Speaking to this paper late last night Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said that he was sorry to see Mr Lungaro Mifsud go and praised the chairman for his outstanding work carried out during the past 15 months.

The resignation will come into effect at the end of August as Mr Lungaro Mifsud is staying on for an interim period until a successor is found.