Most of what was announced at last week’s Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association presentation of the latest quarterly survey must have been music to the ears of the country.

The coming summer season was even described by MHRA president Tony Zahra as “the perfect summer” which, while mirroring exactly the present situation could have also applied to last year, at which time Mr Zahra, if one remembers correctly, was less than enthusiastic.

Since then, nothing has changed: Malta is still run on the same policies. What changed was the cumulative effect of the impact of policies that have been put in place over the past years, which are now bearing fruit.

The most important of these is the entry of low cost carriers over the reluctance of both the past government and also, at least at some stages, of the present government then in Opposition.

What the quarterly results announced was highly encouraging:

-          Over the past decade, 11 hotels with an average 200 rooms each had undertaken refurbishments costing close to €25,000 per room.

-          The survey showed a 12.3% increase in tourist arrivals for the first quarter of 2013, compared to the same period in 2012, and an 8% increase in nights spent in hotels and a 4.2% increase in tourist expenditure.

-          Four-star hotels registered a significant increase of 9.1% in non-accommodation income per occupied room which compensated for the lower occupancy rate and helped increase the total revenue per occupied room by 2.2%. Higher consumption of food and beverages and a slight decrease in payroll costs led four-star hotels to run lower operating costs and register a €49 euro profit per available room.

-          Room rates at three-star hotels declined for the first time after three successive quarters. Occupancy levels improved by 12.4%. This was the third time occupancy levels in three-star hotels increased since the beginning of 2012. This was the primary factor behind marginally lower operating costs which led to a profit of €29 per available room.

Mr Zahra was quite right to reiterate MHRA’s three main recommendations to the government: to work to increase tourist arrivals in the shoulder months, to lower utility rates and to revoke the decision to increase VAT on hotel accommodation from 5 to 7%.

The first target is very important and must be aimed at consistently, strategically and without let-up.

The second target is a political commitment of the present administration.

The third is a decision that not even this government has seen fit to accept, so far, although Mr Zahra makes a strong case for it.

Mostly, however, we feel that the way forward for this sector – this is one sector where hotels have all been built by private enterprise with government help, if any, being of an indirect nature – has to come from the private sector itself. In other words, the government may and should help, but the main incentive and motivation must come from the private sector itself.

Mr Zahra was quite right to urge fellow hoteliers to stop discounting rates as this is keeping the sector back. Gone are the times when the tour operators determine the rates. With internet booking (an ancillary to the low cost carriers regime) tourists can access room rates and pay accordingly. On the one hand they can compare rates (and maybe access too comments, complaints and praises on peer reviews such as TripAdvisor) but on the other hand they do not have the clout (and maybe the dictatorial approach) of the tour operators.

There must be a reason why more hotels have closed down than have been created.

There must be a reason why it is only last year that three-star hotels saw an increase in room occupancy.

Not all hotels are run in the same way and Mr Zahra’s own hotel, as reported many times, has seen almost full occupancy much earlier than other hotels in the same category. This speaks much of Mr Zahra’s and his team’s acumen and even more of those of his colleagues.

Even more pertinent is Mr Zahra’s appeal to his fellow hoteliers to upgrade, invest and improve the service on offer. If the government can find the money, even in these straightened times, to help finance that, so much the better. One must ask here why so many similar schemes of the past years have remained untapped. Government must be very careful it is not looked upon as an easy touch, as so many times in the past.