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Matthew Vella
The director of Inspire Ltd, Jonathan Shaw, has filed a court case against the Malta Tourism Authority accusing the regulator of a conflict of interest.
The company, which runs the booking engine choosemalta.com, is claiming the MTA has a conflict of interest as a national authority after setting up its own e-portal visitmalta.com.
Shaw has said the authority’s regulatory role is distinct from that of licence-holders, and that as regulator the MTA can never be a licence holder, “but plays the role of an independent entity between government and private enterprise”.
Inspire Ltd is claiming the MTA’s “abusive and illegal” action it was directly competing with the private sector, and that it would hold the authority responsible for any losses the company incurred.
Tour operators association FATTA have also said they will be taking up legal action against the MTA in a circular to their members.
But the MTA say the e-portal, which has cost Lm45,900 and awarded by direct order, was developed in close association with the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, FATTA and the Rent-A-Car Association (RACA).
The MTA has already pointed out that it was “instrumental” in providing Lm16,254 in EU structural funds for Inspire Ltd to develop its own website. “The MTA has been acknowledged in this respect on the choosemalta.com website, together with the obligatory reference to EU funding, and also by means of the MTA logo appearing on various pages.”
Inspire was shortlisted as one of 12 companies by the Ministry for Investment, Industry and IT in a restricted call for proposals to develop the onlinebooking portal by the tourism ministry.
Alert Communications was later chosen to develop the e-portal.
The MTA has said that when the request for proposals was issued, Inspire Ltd’s managing director proposed to integrate the visitmalta.com website into the choosemalta.com site, “thus exploiting visitmalta’s popularity to the exclusive advantage of Inspire Ltd.”
The authority said that choosemalta.com site forms part of the choosetotravel group, which promotes other destinations. “Whereas visitmalta.com promotes Malta exclusively, on the choosemalta.com website one finds various links for sites promoting travel to Turkey, Tunisia, Croatia, Morocco, Dubai, Corsica, and Libya.” |
