Hoteliers hit back at COVID-19 criticism: ‘We won’t be scapegoats for second wave’

Malta’s hotels and restaurants association (MHRA) has hit out criticism from the Medical Association of Malta, which accused it of having hastened a second wave of COVID-19 infections through its pressure on government to re-open the Maltese travel market.

The MHRA council came out in defence of president Tony Zahra, saying the lobby would not allow itself to be turned into a scapegoat for Malta’s current struggle with rising COVID-19 cases.

“Zahra has no direct investment in any hotel or restaurant and thereby derives no direct benefit from the hotel and catering industry and any comment made to the contrary is incorrect and serves only to damage the reputation of Mr Zahra underhandedly,” the MHRA said.

Zahra is the chairman of the Alpine Group, whose divisions include travel, car rental, and formerly a bidder for the White Rocks project through Costa San Andrea.

“The MHRA is not the government. The MHRA is a lobby group that over the years has made numerous suggestions to the government of the time which contributed to the growth of the tourism industry from which the whole island has gained. The association does not take governmental decisions, does not control legislation, and does not implement government policy. Executive decisions taken, over the many years since the inception of MHRA rest solely with the government of the day.”

The MHRA said it supported the March lockdown but said it also lobbied to reopen the airport once it was safe, “as fast as possible as this was the only way its members could commence operations and safeguards as many jobs as possible.”

It said it had advocated for the proper protocols across the whole industry from arrivals at the airport to procedures in establishments.

“At no point did the MHRA advocate for mass events to take place. The association categorically denies that it applied any sort of pressure at all to allow for mass events to take place.”

It said various clusters on positive COVID-19 cases had resulted from local events and not from tourist-related cases, showing that the recent spike was not caused by the opening of the airport or by the small number of tourists visiting the island.

“It is blatantly clear when one moves around the island and follows various posts by individuals on social media that many people locally continue to treat social distancing in a trivial manner.

“The MHRA made it clear that the only way the pandemic can be controlled is through everyone following social distancing protocols and was confident that if everyone acted responsibly then the spread of the virus will be brought under control while the economy can continue to function, albeit on a very low speed.”