The Chamber of Planners said Monday that the sites of the former Jerma Hotel and the Hal Ferh tourism village, which had been granted as concessions solely for tourism accommodation, should remain solely for such purpose.

"Developers and investors, should not seek to have it so easy with politicians changing the rules every time they are not winning." Instead, the chamber said, they should seek to transform their business to meet the modern needs of the sector.

"Thinking outside the box, and having better greener tourism may
be key in this regard, rather than seeking to eat away at the available land."

The chamber complained that the tourism industry had convert several hotels into residential units, then asked the government, sometime later, to change
the rules and increase the height limitation.

"Planning is a long term vision and not an ‘à la carte’ option," it insisted.

The chamber said ad hoc decisions are being taken to revise policy documents which are not comfortable to developers. Rather than going through a holistic planning process which would take stock of the country’s spatial requirements, the Planning Authority over these years had taken the habit of changing policies to accommodate developers’ requirements.

"This approach goes entirely against proper spatial planning and will introduce a level of unfair competition, unprecedented fluidity and uncertainty in the
market, discriminate against, and damage investors who may not have the same lobbying power as others, and ultimately creates planning by ownership," it warned.