All licence fees of agencies falling under the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) will be cancelled for the rest of the year, Minister for Tourism and Consumer Protection Clayton Bartolo announced on Wednesday afternoon.
This move, Bartolo continued, will help the tourism sector to recuperate from the Covid-19 pandemic and will help 10,000 operators and businesses save no less than €4 million in total.
Payments from January to December of this year only will be cancelled, Bartolo said.
Every tourism agency involved with the MTA will benefit from this new scheme, he said. Amongst the agencies affected will be hotels, hostels, restaurants, travel agencies, bars, souvenir shops, snack bars, take-away services and pleasure boats.
Bartolo added that English language schools will also benefit from the scheme, and that a new scheme to aid English language schools will be announced next week.
More tourism schemes will be announced in the coming weeks, Bartolo said.
He said this scheme will leave a positive effect on the Maltese economy and will safeguard Maltese and Gozitan citizens.
“We are here to continue giving more help so that we can ensure that our people will be full of courage for the future”, he said.
With Workers Day coming Saturday, Bartolo said that the government will hold the worker at the centre, and workers in the tourism industry are no exception. This scheme will help tourism operators to feel assured that both foreign tourists and domestic tourists will take advantage of their services in the weeks to come.
With tourists set to land in Malta this coming June, Bartolo said that tourists will be welcomed “with respect to the health of everyone”.
This scheme forms part of the Malta Tourism Recovery Plan – a plan which will see €20 million divided across a number of schemes and incentives that will aid local tourism.
Amongst the most recent initiatives announced by Bartolo in the plan was an allocation €1.5 million to support sports tourism and €750,000 allocated to the diving sector. A €100 voucher will also be given to each foreign tourists coming to Malta who has intentions of diving during their stay.