The Tourism Ministry said that 25 hotels with 4,119 beds had closed down in the last three years but 10 new hotels had been opened with a bedstock of 2,336.

Referring to a speech made by Labour leader Alfred Sant in Vittoriosa last Sunday, when Dr Sant said that 24 hotels with 7,500 beds had closed in three years, the ministry said that over the next two years, 28 projects involving new hotels or the expansion of existing ones would yield another 3,941 beds.

This meant that in 2008, there would be a net increase of 2,158 beds when compared to the situation in 2004, the ministry said.

It added that the number of new hotels being built and the number of hotels being expanded was increasing, and this enabled Malta to promote itself as a centre for conference and incentive travel. This sector alone attracted 65,000 visitors in 2006, and these spent Lm33 million. Seventy-six per cent of them stayed in five-star hotels, the ministry said.