The upkeep and embellishment of our environment is being addressed in various innovative manners.
His advice was that we first get our 2-3-4-5 Star estab-
lishments up to collective scratch “.... and then we’ll
raise the bar and jump to higher heights.”
He continued that “In the new tourism legislation
that is being prepared for launching in the coming
months, we are envisaging and facilitating all touris-
tic properties to be able to reach these standards, and
through it we are also encouraging others in very pos-
itive ways to seek to better their own standards. This
will include those touristic properties which are not
classified properly yet. This will obviously benefit the
visitor here too so that the spread of responsibility of
upgrading the product also requires the help of other
entities. In this way the visitor can enjoy the best of
Malta.” He said he saw these entities to include en-
forcement, the MTA, the Lands Department, Trans-
port Malta, the Police Force and so on.
We hope to be sending a message to all
those who want to work within the tourism
industry that there are rules and regulations
and that they have to follow them
HOSPITALITY MALTA
The Minister identified three common issues that we
have at the moment and which need to be addressed.
These, he said, were time share tenants, unregulated
kiosks on the promenades, as well as soliciting outside
adult clubs in St Julian’s and other areas.
“We hope to be sending a message to all those who
want to work within the tourism industry that there
are rules and regulations and that they have to follow
them since these are there so as to not jeopardise the
Malta product for everyone concerned; investors, the
public and visitors” he explained.
“We also need to work on cleansing and embel-
lishment as well as on upkeep in general, and en-
forcement. A directorate has been set up to manage
and oversee all this. Once this is in order we will be
launching what we call the Capital Projects. This will
involve privatisation initiatives to the upgrading of
our living environments and we are trying to assess
how we are best going to finance these initiatives,”
he added. He continued to expand on this saying
that some projects could be financed through the
eco contribution fund, others through EU funds or
else through being given out as concessions and such
like initiatives, including providing opportunities to
private enterprise.
Issue 03
15