Twelve leading hotels have joined forces with the HSBC Cares for Malta's Heritage Fund (HCMHF) and Heritage Malta in an innovative collaboration that sees the tourist sector support Malta's cultural heritage. This brings the total number of hotels participating in the scheme to 17.
The HSBC Hotel Heritage Sponsorship Scheme encourages guests to make a small voluntary contribution for every night stayed in Malta to assist Heritage Malta in the preservation and conservation of leading heritage sites.
The scheme already includes InterContinental Malta, Corinthia San Ġorġ Hotel, Radisson SAS Hotels, Hilton Malta and the Xara Palace Hotel. The scheme now welcomes on board San Antonio, Seabank Hotel, Coastline, The Diplomat, Maritim Antonin, Bay Street, 115 The Strand, Selmun Palace, Ramla Bay, Santana, Sunflower, and the Barcelo Riviera Resort and Spa.
Each participating hotel is associated with a specific heritage site. These are the Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra temples, Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, St Paul's Catacombs, Vilhena Palace, the Malta Maritime Museum, Għar Dalam Cave and Museum, Domus Romana, Ta' Kola Windmill and the Inquisitor's Palace.
Guests staying at the participating hotels are invited to donate one euro per room per night, which is added to their bill. Guests contributing to the scheme receive a token bookmark featuring the sponsored site associated with their hotel. The funds collected are administered by Heritage Malta to help in the restoration and preservation of the specific site.
At an event to introduce the new hotels in the scheme, HSBC's CEO Shaun Wallis said: "Malta has a very rich cultural heritage concentrated in a very small space and we should do our utmost to exploit it. It is only through all the stakeholders pulling together that we can ensure Malta's heritage is protected. The scheme has been a success and will now grow further thanks to the new hotels joining up."
"This initiative is symbolic because it latches tourism to cultural heritage, something that we at Heritage Malta feel very strongly about," Heritage Malta chairman Mario Tabone said.
"We think the future of tourism in Malta will depend a lot on cultural heritage, and this new source of funding will free up some of our scarce resources which we can then dedicate to other sites which until now may not have been given all the attention they deserve."
"Malta's cultural and historical heritage is one of our major resources. It contributes towards our identity. It also contributes towards the tourism industry which is one of our major economic sectors," Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said, adding that "while the present administration is investing heavily in this sector and has just published a set of measures - which are included in the 2008 budget - to promote and support the creative and artistic sectors, the contribution of the private sector is not only appreciated but is essential."