Notwithstanding the stronger performance reported in December the last quarter of the year still reported a 2% drop in arrivals and an 8.3% drop in guest night generation.

The survey further revealed that arrivals for the year from Malta’s core UK, German and French markets were 73,000 less than the previous year of which 10,500 were attributable to the last quarter. These losses were partially offset by the sustained increases from Italy which produced over 20,000 more arrivals in 2006. Occupancy levels for the year as a whole fell by 2 percentage points in both the 4-star and 5-star categories and by a crippling 9 percentage points in the 3-star category.

Occupancy levels in December were encouragingly up and enabled hotel operators to at least halt the declining occupancy trends experienced in previous months.

In turn, while addressing MHRA, GRTU director Vince Farrugia called for the resignation of the Minister for Tourism Francis Zammit Dimech. Mr.Farrugia said that the tourism industry was in deep crisis and the Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi should dismiss the Tourism Minister and take over this most important portfolio himself.  Otherwise the PM would be insensitive to the dire situation.

In June, former MHRA president Winston J. Zahra also had mentioned that people in office who do not achieve targets they set themselves should resign pointing his finger at the Minister and MTA chairman. On the other hand, Labour Leader Dr Alfred Sant has more than once called for the Tourism minister’s resignation.