200,000 more cruise line passengers in 2015 – Tourism Minister

200,000 more cruise liner passengers will visit Malta this year than they had in 2014, Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said, an increase of 20%.

Speaking in Parliament during the second reading of the Budgetary Measures Implementation Bill, Zammit Lewis also said that he will soon announce a list of films that will be filmed in Malta this year. He criticised the previous administration for largely ignoring the film industry, claiming that they left the Rinella film studios in a disastrous state and they had submitted a proposal to MEPA to convert the Rinella water tanks into a fish farm.

Zammit Lewis pointed out that Turkish Airlines, RyanAir and WizzAir will increase their flights to Malta this year, and that a new hotel and several new boutique hotels will soon open their doors in Gozo.

He hit out at Opposition MP Antoine Borg for calling for a capacity exercise to determine Malta’s optimum level of tourists.  

“Does Borg want the number of tourists to be capped?” Zammit Lewis questioned. “The tourism industry is calling for more tourists and for tourism to become more spread out across the island.”

During a meeting between the Opposition and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association earlier today, shadow economy minister Claudio Grech had suggested that the government start looking at the MHRA as an executive partner, rather than as a lobby group.

“Unlike the previous administration, this government has chosen to involve the private sector in its decision-making processes,” Zammit Lewis said. “Grech should explain what executive role he intends the MHRA, a non-governmental entity, to play, and who he believes to consider the MHRA as a mere lobby group.”