Government asking for tourism trouble - PL

In a statement reacting to the government’s 2011 Budget, PL spokesperson Marie-Louise Coleiro-Preca hit out at over government’s decision to increase VAT by 2% (from 5% to 7%) in Monday’s 2011 Budget.

“At a time when the tourism industry seems to be picking up, following long periods of drops in tourism figures, instead of providing support, it (government) chose to further add to its burdens,” Coleiro-Preca said.

She said that despite that tourism operators have long since drew attention to the fact hat , despite how tourism figures rose this year, the profits of that increase were absorbed by the “extraordinary burdens that the government loaded them with,” it chose to increase these burdens and threaten the country’s touristic competitiveness.

She branded this move as “irresponsibility on the government’s part,” when it knows well that in 2008 the World Economic Forum had already classified Malta towards the bottom of the list out of 120 touristic destinations in a tourism competitiveness exercise.

Coleiro-Preca affirmed how the sector’s troubles would only continue to grow due to Air Malta’s decision to reduce seat-capacity on UK-based routes next summer. “This will mean even less accessibility from Malta’s largest tourism market.”

She affirmed that competitiveness and accessibility are two central pillars that support the tourism industry in regaining strength and “thus ensure not only profitability, but also an increase in employment.”

She said how “these insensitive and irresponsible decisions are symptomatic of a government that lacks plan or policy.”