Gzira’s Grands Suites hotel has launched a new petition to see Maltese cuisine recognised in a category on leading international online travel guide Tripadvisor.

The hotel launched its campaign on social media, and encourages readers to sign its petition to encourage Tripadvisor to acknowledge Maltese food as a cuisine type on its website.

“Can we give the humble Pastizzi, Timpana, and even the mouth-watering Ftira the respect they deserve?” it asked.

The Change.org petition had a modest 15 signatories at the time of writing and explained that the hotel serves Maltese dishes at both its Café Fer Blanc and its Eleven Eleven Rooftop restaurant, and that it was “shocked” to find out that Tripadvisor doesn’t consider Maltese food a cuisine in its own right.

Indeed, the Tripadvisor website does not include Maltese as a cuisine to filter restaurants by – although it does include a Mediterranean category.

Cuisine categories that make the cut include a number of regional Italian cuisines including Ligurian, Lazio, Neopolitan, and Peruvian.

When searching for restaurants on the app or website, users are able to filter by cuisine, and introducing Maltese as a cuisine would allow tourists and locals alike searching for authentic native food to satiate their cravings.