ITS to provide more courses

The Institute of Tourism Studies will in the future provide students with more options to follow a career in the tourism sector, Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said.

The minister - who did not specify what the courses would be - was speaking at the launch of a consultative committee on tourism, which includes representatives from various stakeholders in the field such as the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA), Air Malta, the Gozo Channel, the Valletta Cruise Port, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) and ITS itself amongst others.

"The politics implemented in the past, whilst some of it very good, needs to be revised," Zammit Lewis said. "This is especially the case for an ever-changing industry like tourism."

Speaking at the event under the slogan 'Tourism with vision, tourism with direction', held at the Saluting Battery at the Upper Barrakka in Valletta, Zammit Lewis said that whilst the tourism sector was proving very fruitful with a 29% of Malta's gross domestic product being generated from tourism, it still faced challenges.

Describing the industry as "a pillar of Malta's economy which needed to be taken seriously", the minister said that recent statistics bode well for the future.

"In April of this year, there was an increase of 13% in arrivals when compared to the corresponding month of last year and a 10% increase in bed nights," he said. "And in May there was an 8% increase in arrivals when compared to last year and a 14% increase of arrivals from non-EU countries."

"Therefore, if one had to keep in mind that 2013 was already a very good year for the country's tourism, the situation is very good and as government's representative, I cannot but thank all the stakeholders for the work they have our in," he said. "It would now be wise to target source markets outside of Europe."

Zammit Lewis said that since his appointment as tourism minister, he gained a better understanding of the challenges the sector faced. "We want to improve infrastructural and connectivity issues as well as make use of digital marketing," he said. "We want to improve our product development and ensure that we are not too dependent on the sector."

"We want to invest in training and increase the awareness of persons who work in the field and generate a higher sense of pride in their jobs," he said. "We have many resources which we need to exhaust based on the budget we have. It is to discuss and implement these factors that we will be setting up this consultative committee."

While citing the fact that Gozo had also witnessed a 9% increase in arrivals from last year, Zammit Lewis added that government was committed to marketing the sister island as a separate touristic location and not just an extension of Malta. This, he said, will also help to generate more jobs for Gozitans.

Asked what timeframes he was envisaging for the Committee's agenda, Zammit Lewis said that the plan was to set out a vision from 2015 to 2020 but explained that tourism was largely affected by a number of exterior factors, thereby making it an ever-changing industry.