Malta's tourism arrivals are practically back to the records established in 2008, thanks to wise decisions taken early this year by the government to invest further in the industry and increase seat capacity and routes, officials of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association said this afternoon.

In a generally up-beat press conference to present the findings of a survey on the industry's performance in the second quarter of this year, association president George Micallef said arrivals grew by almost 13% compared to the second quarter of last year and were practically at the same level as the record breaking 2008.

He cautioned, however, that while hotel occupancy was on the increase, costs had risen steeply and hotels were therefore not out of the woods yet and were still worried about their profitability.

He said that the survey pointed to improvement in all the important indicators including arrivals, occupancy and tourist spending, and projections for the rest of the year were also positive.

"Up to June 2010, not withstanding the improved revenue, hotel gross operating profits remained 25% below the average level of 2006-2008," Mr Micallef said.

"We must continue to push for further growth in arrivals and find new ways of cotnaining costs," Mr Micallef stressed.