The Nationalist Party wants the government to step in and offer financial aid to the Tourism sector until at least March of next year.

In a statement on Tuesday, the PN listed a series of measures it said Malta’s hotel and catering sector needed to ensure sustainability in the first three months of 2022.

Those requests include extending a COVID wage supplement to March, doing away with Malta Tourism Authority licensing fees until that time and slashing VAT on restaurants and bars to 7 per cent.

The wage supplement was originally due to expire at the end of the year but has been extended through to January for all sectors. 

PN Tourism spokesperson Robert Arrigo also argued that the government should intervene to help weather increases in the price of heating fuel oil, which has risen 8 per cent in price since last month.

Arrigo argued that the MTA should also be smarter in allocating its funds and focus on marketing Malta as a destination.

“If we really want to save this sector during tough times, the government should take note of these proposals and implement them as soon as possible,” Arrigo said.

The hotel and catering lobby warned some weeks ago that it foresees “long, hard months ahead’, with the pandemic continuing to drag on the sector’s recovery.

Since then, new public health restrictions have made it illegal to organise standing events and introduced a 1am curfew for all establishments. Those restrictions will apply until at least January 17, when access will start being restricted to holders of valid vaccine certificates.