The tourism industry needs a clear and consistent message on how the government plans to reopen the airport or risk losing tourists to competitors, PN deputy leader Robert Arrigo said on Friday. 

Speaking at a press conference at the PN headquarters on Thursday evening, Arrigo said the tourism industry was not simply about going to Valletta for a coffee. The industry needed a solid plan of action to prepare for tourists and this exercise was costly and time consuming. 

“If you want to open hotels and accommodation, you cannot announce a plan on Monday and expect them to be ready to open by Friday. Other countries have already committed to reopening by a certain date and tourism operators know that they can bank on this date,” Arrigo said. 

The deputy leader added that the nine countries that Malta could potentially open its doors to, as announced by Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli, accounted for not more than eight per cent of travellers to Malta in 2019. 

Home Affairs spokesperson for the Opposition Beppe Fenech Adami meanwhile said that while the government had found no issue shelling out €4.5 million in taxpayers' money on the controversial VistaJet contract, it was keeping businesses and the local industry in the dark. 

The government had wasted €1.5 million in payments to VistaJet  for marketing services that were not fulfilled and at the same time tightening its purse strings with struggling businesses, Fenech Adami said. 

The Opposition spokesperson for good governance Karol Aquilina said that the way that the government spent its money was an issue of governance. 

“It is absolutely unacceptable that those entrusted with running public entities refuse to answer, or are unable to answer, questions on how our funds are being spent,” Aquilina said. 

“The lack of good governance is an unnecessary tax that people end up shouldering.” 

The Nationalist Party, Aquilina added, was committed to taking the weight off taxpayers' backs and ensuring that government funds were spent on saving jobs and strengthening the industry.