A conference organised by the Institute of Hospitality yesterday discussed how the Maltese hospitality industry could be more competitive within the EU framework.

The Parliamentary Secretary for Small Businesses and the Self Employed, Edwin Vassallo told his audience: “Economic success has placed our country in a situation where we need to choose our priorities. We need more professionals for our enterprise to succeed competitively in the local and global market. It only takes a little bit of carelessness for us to go back to the situation we were in three to four years ago. If we want to continue to grow in capacity we have to offer the best service focused on the client in every sector of hospitality.”

Many different sectors of the economy depend on success in tourism. “We are at a crossroads where we can either improve on what we have or go back to how we were a few years ago. We have to find a way to send 10 and not just two people over to train overseas on the Leonardo programme so as to break our insularity and this can be done by sending our junior managers away for training,” he said.

The chairman of the Institute of Hospitality, Anthony Coleiro said: “The institute gives people within the hospitality sector access to networking and the means to achieving best business practice. We need to identify on a national level why there is a shortage of employees, and find short term solutions for the provision of work permits for foreigners. It is true that there are a number of employees leaving to work overseas however we must avoid employing unqualified staff.”

Junior Managers Bertrand Gatt from the Preluna Hotel and Sarah Demarco from the University Residence were the winners of a national competition for overseas placements, thanks to their projects in Hotel Management and Human Resources. Mr Gatt has received a placement at The Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh while Ms Demarco will be going to the Clontarf Castle Hotel in Dublin.