Malta’s tourism strategy needs to be reworked and adapted to a changed world, following the pandemic, according to a survey conducted by EY amongst key executives from some of the island’s major hotels, hotel chains and boutique accommodation.

The respondents underlined the need to revisit Malta’s tourism offering, EY found, with a “long-term strategic” view of paramount importance. 

“All respondents shared a view that Malta needs to revisit and assess its tourism product in the light of the ongoing challenge, and step up its game across all areas,” the survey results said. 

Furthermore, most of the respondents “envisage the need to improve service offering to attract increasingly demanding visitors,” with the survey also specifying that “there is unanimity that the pandemic will change Malta’s tourism model and that all operators need to adapt to these new realities.”

Indeed, as part of their recommendations, EY have said that global tourism patterns and behaviours are expected to change radically in the coming years. While there is no easy way to shift towards niche tourism segments, stakeholders and authorities can jointly support an initiative to revisit the Maltese offering in a post- COVID-19 reality.

It also called for a more sustainable form of tourism for the future. “Aspects of masterplans for key touristic areas, initiatives to improve the collective level of service quality, educational level, quality of tourism infrastructure and strategic direction that the country needs to take can be developed with a medium to long-term view,” the recommendations said.

Moreover, there should be “increased efforts in promotion and building market confidence” with “sector-wide efforts targeting key tourism segments” to be put in work. 

The Government’s fiscal support measures were essential to the sector’s recovery, according to the respondents, who said they expect it to take up to five years for the industry to reach 2019 levels again. 

The “unanimous response”, the survey results said, was that all reservations until the end of June 2020 were either cancelled or deferred, while bookings for the rest of the summer were also being cancelled or postponed gradually. Moreover, the participants expect “a material risk of the crisis prolonging well into 2021”, with “significant concerns that the recovery will be slow and difficult.” Moreover, “uncertainty around the duration of the pandemic, availability of a vaccine, and changes in consumer behaviour will exacerbate the matter.”