“With the launch of the Malta Tourism Authority web portal, the regulator of the tourism industry has entered in direct competition with us as private businesses. It is like having the Malta Transport Authority offering a taxi service or the Malta Financial Services Authority opening an insurance company. This is a very serious precedent!”

The Leisure and Tourism Economic Group (LTEG) within the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise, said this in a statement as an official reaction to the recent launch of a web-portal by the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA).

For a number of weeks, the LTEG has been requesting a meeting with MTA to discuss the repercussions this web-portal will have on the private sector operating in the tourism industry, but as yet no reply was forthcoming.

The group has already stated publicly that this web-portal should operate by having a direct link with the websites of all licensed travel agents.

The LTEG is also concerned with the way the portal has been launched, i.e. with a large number of the online facilities still not operational. This apart from the fact that if one tries to book a hotel in Malta for either February or March, all hotels result as booked.

The LTEG insists that this is not the proper way the

visitmalta.com portal should have developed, and reiterates the urgent need for a meeting to be set up with MTA for its members – who contribute to the MTA’s budget – to discuss the proper way forward.