This week Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco announced that plans to introduce the controversial 50c bed tax have been replaced with new plans to introduce an eco-contribution. This will consist of a fee of €3.50 per tourist payable upon arrival, irrespective of the length of stay.
Details regarding the scheme still have to emerge but my gut feeling is that this proposal will prove to be just as problematic as the previous one – in fact possibly more so! The capping of the tax at €3.50 might have solved the problem of travellers staying in Malta for extended periods of time. However it now creates the opposite problem.
The first issue that springs to mind is the impact this will have on the cost of a weekend break in Malta. The availability of cheap flights to destinations such as Malta and other popular tourist spots has increased the number of people going away for one or two nights – so imposing a €3.50 tax on such travellers means that they will be paying €1.75 per person per night. Frankly, I don’t think such a cost will deter holidaymakers who are determined to come to Malta for the weekend but it definitely might make a difference to cost-conscious travellers who are not fussy regarding destination but are simply looking for the best deal possible.
The second problem relates to tourists coming off a cruise liner – will these people also be charged €3.50 upon arrival? If yes, this could lead to a loss of cruise liner business – a serious problem when one considers that, according to the National Statistics Office, the number of cruise liner passengers who came to Malta this year was 28% less than those who came in January 2009. We cannot afford to scare even more of them away!
The final issue is the collection mechanism. Who will collect the money? When will this tax start being levied? What happens if a tourist arrives in Malta and refuses to pay the tax because he or she had not been notified of the cost in advance?
Mario de Marco is in a difficult position. Promoting tourism is an expensive proposition and he needs all the money he can get. The government has been successful in attracting low-cost airlines and increasing routes and seat capacity to Malta and all in all, I would say they are doing a good job, particularly considering the limited finances available.
So I can understand the need to raise money to finance even more positive schemes to help tourism. The problem however is that they need to be a bit more consistent and flesh out their plans a bit more before announcing them to all and sundry.
One thing I must say though: the people who came up with this scheme were clever with their naming strategy! Eco-contribution sounds a lot better than bed tax. It will be easier to ask for an eco-contribution than it will be to tax someone for taking up a bed. The message to tourists will be that their money will be used to offset the carbon footprint they will generate during their stay and possibly they will feel all warm and fuzzy about doing their bit for the environment (or maybe not).
The point is, however, is this really an eco-contribution? I understand that part of the money will be used to extend schemes that help hotels put in place equipment, such as solar panels and other energy saving devices. That is a good plan. However it would also be nice if some of it could be used to clean up the island or to upgrade some beaches. Otherwise there is a danger that this eco mumbo-jumbo ends up being just a PR exercise to make the tax more palatable.
More weapons in our arsenal The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee recently published a report that discusses the burden that illegal immigration is putting on member states.
The study looks at the costs incurred by each country to deal with asylum applications and the hosting of illegal immigrants, and then analyses the impact on each country by taking into consideration its size and financial resources.
Finally we have something official and with an EU stamp on it that proves that the burden on Malta is disproportionate and that we need help. In fact the study clearly identifies Malta as the member state that is incurring proportionally the highest cost of illegal immigration in the EU.
“The total costs in 2007 varied significantly among the member states. They ranged between less than 0.001% of a member state’s GDP and 0.26% of the GDP, with Malta spending a GDP share more than a thousand times larger than Portugal.”
This report should be a formidable weapon for our politicians. With this in hand, they can ramp up their demands for assistance and also increase the pressure for mandatory burden sharing. In fact, the report is very helpful in providing ammunition that we can use and goes as far as to state clearly that the offers of burden sharing we received so far from countries such as France and the Netherlands “are more symbolic than anything else, as they have had a negligible impact on the costs and the overall pressures experiences by Malta.”
There you go. I would suggest that our five MEPs and Minister Tonio Borg print out several copies of this report, highlight the relevant parts in bright yellow highlighter and give it out as a handout at every meeting where illegal immigration is discussed.
I am sure that those present will get the message.
Any comments?
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