Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi on Monday encouraged hoteliers to consider alternative investments to building new hotels in a bid to diversify the island’s offering. 

He was reacting to the author of a nation-wide survey on the hospitality sector who last week warned of “alarming” spikes in the number of hotels on the island, which he said could pose a risk to the sector’s profitability.

“We do encourage hoteliers to invest in refurbishment or redevelopment of existing hotels as well as to invest in other leisure products, whether they are culinary projects, theatres, museums or events,” he said.

The survey, conducted by ‘big four’ accounting firm Deloitte on behalf of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, found that while tourist arrival trends were “still positive”, the increases were less pronounced than in previous years.

“This year so far the results aren’t what we had got used to. We had a number of years where the graphs kept going up but this year was different,” Raphael Aloisio, from Deloitte, had said.

Most alarmingly, he had warned that if supply of hotels and restaurants continued to increase at a faster rate than the demand for rooms and tables, then the sector would dip.  

The number of permits for hotels being issued has shot up from 15 in 2012 to 119 in 2017. 

Asked about this trend, Dr Mizzi said the government had a strategy to tackle the issue. 

On the demand side, the government had been working to introduce a number of new routes during the shoulder months, and other times of the year, in a bid to fill the new rooms.

And on the supply-side, the government had been working on the scourge of local hoteliers – private accommodation. 

Dr Mizzi said the government had just concluded an agreement with alternative accommodation giant Booking.com, which would ensure that providers in Malta would have to register with the Malta Tourism Authority before putting their property on the website.

The authorities, Dr Mizzi said, were also holding talks with Trip Advisor. 

Dr Mizzi said the island particularly needed to diversify its offering. One sector that was lacking was high-end accommodation.

The minister had just visited a new high-end hotel in Valletta. He said the high-spend tourist and business-calls visitors’ required more tailor-made accommodation.