5,000 delegates expected for major conference this August
Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco announced yesterday that a major conference of 5,000 people was expected to be held in Malta next August, while another conference, of 1,000 delegates, is expected to be held this coming March.
Speaking during a conference hosted by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, Mario de Marco expressed cautious optimism about the outlook for tourism this year, and while acknowledging the difficult times incurred by all in the sector during 2009, he explained that the drop in conference and incentive travel last year had been one of the major contributing factors for the drop in tourist arrivals
He urged restaurateurs to heed the changing trends of tourism and adjust their product and services accordingly, while he pointed out that Italy was now Malta’s second tourism source market and Germany was the third. The expectations of the Italians and the Germans were different from the British, towards whom most restaurants were tailored, he said.
Dr de Marco said that by and large, the quality of restaurants had improved, but it had been noted from surveys, that tourists’ satisfaction was higher in the winter than the summer, leading one to suspect that quality of service was deteriorating as patrons increased.
He said that restaurateurs needed to keep their menus updated, and they also needed to offer more Maltese dishes. One could get Italian food all over the world, but Maltese food only in Malta.
