'No cut' in MTA's marketing budget

The Finance Ministry said yesterday a cut of Lm500,000 in the Malta Tourism Authority's budget would not affect marketing as only the operational and administrative expenditure would be reduced.

The statement followed a meeting between the ministry and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association.

The news of the MTA budget cut shocked the MHRA.

The ministry said the Tourism and Culture Ministry had instructed the MTA to review its expenditure for the year and determine how the savings could be made without affecting its overall marketing objective.

Prior to the clarification, tourism-related bodies, as well as Alternattiva Demokratika, voiced opposition to the cut in the MTA's budget, with the Federation of Associations of Travel and Tourism Agents (Fatta) accusing the government of "inconsistency", and the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) describing the move as "suicidal".

Fatta said the government had been slapping tourism operators and the industry repeatedly for the last year.

The cut was perceived as "completely in contrast to the Prime Minister's declaration that tourism was one of the government's key priorities", it said.

While acknowledging that the country was facing dire financial problems, Fatta questioned the wisdom of the decision to cut back investment in tourism, which, it said, was "tantamount to starving the goose that lays the golden egg".

Fatta also wondered what happened to the promise made during last November's budget debates by the then Finance Minister to set up a tourism fund from revenue generated by VAT.

"The industry anxiously waits to see where the next slap is coming from," the federation said.

The president of the hospitality and leisure division of the GRTU, Philip Fenech, came out in support of the industry. He said it was important to bear in mind what was happening on the international scene, where tourism was starting to move: other competing destinations were marketing more aggressively than before and lowering prices.

AD said the cut was evidence of the "typical rash attitude of the government when faced with the financial crisis it has put the country in".

Until yesterday afternoon, Heritage Malta chairman Mario Tabone had not been officially informed about a Lm350,000 cut affecting the agency, mentioned by MHRA president Winston Zahra yesterday.

"After having strained every nerve to put the agency on a sound basis, to be hit by that sort of information is like a ton of bricks falling on our heads.

"Heritage Malta is already stretched to the limit, so if it were to be hit by a reduction in its budget of that dimension, the effect would be disastrous," Dr Tabone said.