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HSBC Cares For Malta’s Heritage Fund and Heritage Malta together launched a Hotel-Heritage Sponsorship Scheme, yesterday. Through this scheme, guests staying at Hotels in Malta will be invited to make a voluntary contribution towards the upkeep of selected Heritage Malta museums and sites when settling their bills. These contributions will go into a bank account jointly operated by Heritage Malta and the respective Hotel at HSBC Bank Malta plc.
The scheme was launched at the Museum of Fine Arts in the presence of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry for Tourism and Culture, Peter Portelli who was speaking on behalf of Minister for Tourism and Culture, Francis Zammit Dimech. Under the terms and conditions of this scheme, Malta’s leading Hotels and their respective guests will be able to sponsor the upkeep and restoration of specific museums and historical sites.
HSBC’s Chief Executive Officer, Shaun Wallis when launching the scheme said: “Malta has a rich cultural heritage which is unique in the world. We recognise the need to protect Malta’s cultural treasures for the benefit of present and future generations. The funds collected through this scheme will be used to maintain and upgrade a specific heritage site chosen by each Hotel.
“Most of the major hotels in Malta and Gozo are customers of HSBC and we had received a lot of feedback that overseas tourists and customers of theirs were looking for a way to contribute to the wonderful sites visited while in Malta. This scheme is the outcome of that feedback. We have started with a select number of the top 5 and 4-star hotels in Malta who are our Customers and with the help of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), we hope to extend this to the whole Tourist industry.”
Antoinette Caruana, Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Malta reciprocated: “Each hotel customer contributing to the scheme will receive a small token in the form of a replica of a historical artefact from Heritage Malta. And each participating Hotel will also receive a proper statement of account as to how the money is being used.” HSBC Cares for Malta’s Heritage Fund announced a Lm10,000 sponsorship towards the Museum of Fine Arts. HSBC will also seek to raise donations to this Museum from tourists and customers through its branch network. |
