Many have been questioning about what the country’s most beloved season, summer, will look like amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a webinar by the Tourism Ministry, the Malta Tourism Authority and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli confirmed that the country will have tourism this summer, adding that the first “engine” to be started would be internal tourism between Malta and Gozo.
She said this will be confirmed by Prime Minister Robert Abela by this Monday, where he will announce which economic sectors will be reopened.
The Minister also announced that in line with time lines provided by Dr Abela for the reopening of further sectors, Government will also publish “clear protocols” about how restaurants, hotels and other beaches are to be operated.
She also spoke of a bilateral mechanism which would see a ‘safe travel bubble’ for tourism, dependent on the state of COVID-19 for each. The countries mentioned were Luxembourg, Norway, Serbia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Austria, Czech Republic, and Israel.
Minister Farrugia Portelli said there will be summer in tourism even if different from previous ones. She explained that the strategy of the Maltese Government this week was awarded a strong certificate by the World Tourism Organisation within the United Nations (UNWTO).
Around 99,000 jobs have already been saved, with 20,000 people in tourism benefitting from COVID-19 supplement, she said.
Minister Farrugia Portelli underlined how Malta was the first country in the world to launch a free training scheme for tourism workers with an investment of €5 million.
Malta Tourism Authority’s CEO Johann Buttigieg welcomed the quite active participation from the tourism stakeholders for this webinar and added that this complements the overwhelming participation of the €5 million investment in training courses that were launched last week and were fully booked in just four days. He added that this is very encouraging and augurs positivity in what is being currently planned for the future.
MHRA President Tony Zahra expressed his satisfaction in the fact that the industry will indeed have a summer this year. He added that he is convinced that if everyone works hand in hand, the situation will improve, and we can move further ahead.
The webinar was addressed also by the Chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority Dr Gavin Gulia and the Deputy CEO and Head of Marketing Carlo Micallef.
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