The Government will present a new tourism policy in the coming weeks, that will look to bring quality tourists and improve Malta’s connectivity, Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Sunday.

Abela said the policy will focus on how to maintain tourism volume but also focus on what sort of visitors are attracted to Malta. He dismissed the idea that decreasing the number of tourists arriving in Malta is the right measure.

The tourism policy will also look at short-term rentals, he said. 

Last month, MTA CEO Carlo Micallef revealed proposals that would mean apartment owners would need to get the go-ahead from the majority in their block before being granted short-term letting licenses. 

According to an exercise carried out by Times of Malta, the new rules would affect three-quarters of Malta's licenced homes.

“We cannot abandon those whose only investment an an apartment they bought to rent short-term, but we must balance their interests with neighbours who live in the same block as those short-term lets”, Abela said.  

Abela was short on providing further detail on what the policy would include.

Speaking at the start of a Labour Party fundraising telethon, Abela said that the government’s “sound decisions” have led to economic growth and made the private sector confident enough to embark on investments that require huge capital investments.  

Those investments will entice the quality tourists the country wants, Abela said.  

The prime minister specifically singled out Malta’s tallest building, Mercury Towers, in Paceville, developer Joseph Portelli's most ambitious project. 

“Until a few years ago there wasn't a Maltese who could have taken on a project like this, which cost a third of a billion. This is now possible because this government opened new economic opportunities,” he said. 

PL government made a "constitutional revolution"

Abela was speaking at PL headquarters in Ħamrun, two days after Malta celebrated its 50th anniversary as a republic.  

Abela said that the changes made 50 years ago meant that the guardian of the constitution was no longer a foreigner, but a Maltese president.  

The constitutional amendment that brought about a republic, and several others including in 1987 were fundamental in making Malta what it is today, he said.  

“For 30 years any changes to the constitution were cosmetic,” he said.  

But the prime minister said that the government embarked on a “constitutional revolution” in the last years.  

That includes appointing the chief justice via a two-thirds majority vote in parliament and giving full autonomy to how the judiciary operates.  

How the police commissioner is appointed has also changed he said.  

Those changes meant that Malta’s good governance credentials have improved, Abela said.