'Malta must reach Luxembourg's standards by 2040' - MHRA president

Malta needs to establish a long-term economic policy so as to reach Luxembourg's standards by 2040, newly-elected Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association President Tony Zahra said. 

"On average, people in Luxembourg earn three times as much as Maltese people do," Zahra said during a meeting with the Nationalist Party. "However, people in Luxembourg produce much more than the Maltese do, so the Maltese must start producing more,"

He pointed out that tourism is crucial to the economy and that 'presenting a beautiful face in tourism has a spillover affect'. 

Shadow economy minister Claudio Grech called for the MHRA to have a more executive role in the design of government tourism policy. 

"Of course, the government must maintain its regulatory role but it needs to start looking at the MHRA as an executive partner and not a lobby group. The wealth of tourism knowledge is in the industry, not in government."

Tourism spokesman Antoine Borg called for a capacity exercise to determine Malta's optimum level of tourists. He also suggested the introduction of more niche-specific activities and events, the strengthening of Air Malta, and the improvement of tourism education.

"We want people working in the tourism sector to stop viewing their jobs as a means of earning money, but rather as a vocational career," Borg said. "That will lead to a leap in the quality of our tourism workforce."