MP calls for priority to be given to cruise ships

Opposition tourism spokesman Evarist Bartolo said yesterday that the government needed to decide who to give preference to in port operations; would it be cruise liners or warships?

It was unacceptable, he said, that a cruise ship was last week berthed at Ras Hanzier while the berth at Lascaris was occupied by a warship.

Malta, he said, needed to attract more cruise liners to Malta, especially since a cruise terminal was under construction, and the number of cruise passengers this year had dropped by 47,000. Some cruise companies, such as Royal Caribbean, were also not calling at Malta after customs exemptions were removed when Malta joined the EU.

All this pointed to the need for cruise liners to be given the best possible harbour facilities.

That the number of cruise ships calling at Malta was expected to rise next year was welcome, more so when other sectors of the economy were not doing well.

Mr Bartolo said the way statistics were collected needed to be improved. It was not enough to say that a certain number of passengers had arrived in Malta on cruise ships.

What counted was the number of passengers who actually landed here. Why was it that sometimes only half or a third of passengers on cruise ships actually landed at Malta.

The cruise line business was growing, with some 14 million passengers currently going on cruises, Mr Bartolo said, but competition among cruise destination ports was fierce. Malta faced competition from Italy, Tunisia, Greece, Spain and other destinations, and Libya would soon enter the fray.

Malta needed to equip itself better to counter this competition. He hoped the Viset consortium would complete its terminal on time and be successful in its efforts to attract business.

But what was the government doing to make Malta one of the important cruise destinations?