NEWS | Wednesday, 27 August 2008

July tourism registers drop over last year

Charlot Zahra

An MHRA survey revealed a sharp drop in hotel room occupancy rate during July 2008 when compared to last year, with the highest slump being registered in the five-star sector.
Contacted by this newspaper, Malta Hotels and Restaurants’ Association (MHRA) Chief Executive Officer George Schembri said:
“From our monthly survey sent to our members the occupancy in hotels this July went down by 7 per cent over July 2007 but slightly better by then July 2006.
“We can only contribute the fall in occupancy due to the economic situation in mainland Europe. The drop of the value of the Sterling, the credit crunch, lower seat capacity over summer 2007, and the oil fuel crisis that occurred in May/June which would have affected consumer confidence in spending their savings on summer holidays at a time when Governments were giving indications that households will have to suffer higher electricity bills in view of the rising price of crude oil,” he said.
“Airlines also uplifted fuel surcharges which meant it was more expensive to fly especially to destinations longer than 2.5 hours flight time,” Schembri explained, adding that the main drop was registered in the five-star sector, which depends upon direct bookings during the summer months.
The four star sector also had a slight drop of 2.82 per cent in July this year when compared to last year but was about 3 per cent better than 2006.
The three star sector remained practically unchanged over the past three years – it was 0.01 per cent lower than last year but about 0.04 per cent better than 2006.
Asked on how hotels fared in the Bugibba area when compared to the St Julian’s area in July this year when compared to last year, and whether they fared worse than in July 2007 and in July 2006, Schembri explained that in the Bugibba, Mellieha and Gozo area, five-star hotels underperformed by around 20 per cent over last year, however they kept about the same levels as in July 2006.
Four-star hotels in the Bugibba, Mellieha and Gozo area underperformed by around 1.94 per cent over last year but performed better than in July 2006.
On the other hand, three-star hotels in the area performed better by around 6.1 per cent when compared to last year, and also better than in July 2006.
“The four and the three-star hotels performed better in the north due to the complete reliance on tour operators business’ which is booked well in advanc to the fuel crisis,” Schembri said Business Today.
In an interview with Business Today published on July 23 this year, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism Mario De Marco was still optimistic that the double-digit growth rates experienced in the first part of the year would continue in July.
“One must also take into account that in the five-star sector we registered an increase of 30 per cent in room occupancy, and we obviously have to keep on working at improving this figure. Even when you take into account all the factors working against us, indications are showing that we are very likely to reach last year¹s figures for July and possibly also beat them,” De Marco had predicted.

The hoteliers’ view
Adrian Attard, Assistant General Manager at the Radisson SAS Golden Sands Resort and Spa, told Business Today that the occupancy figures for the five-star hotel, which is situated in the north of the island, this year “compared very well” to those that they had last year.
In the four-star sector, Francis Cassar, Financial Controller at the Golden Tulip Vivaldi in St Julian’s, told Business Today that the occupancy rates for July this year stood at 87.9 per cent, as against 93.3 per cent in 2007 and 93 per cent in 2006.
“However please note that the hotel had more rooms to sell in 2008 as the new wing having an additional 58 rooms opened late last year in fact the number of room nights sold rose from 5,915 in July 2006 to 5,927 in July 2007 and 7,116 in July this year,” Cassar told Business Today.
Asked about the reasons that led for this rise in room nights sold in July, the Vivaldi’s financial controller said that “the increase may be attributed to an increase in arrivals including but not exclusively to low cost.”
Dominic Cutajar, Sales and Marketing Manager at the four-star Dolmen Resort in Qawra, said that occupancy for the month of July has remained the same as in the previous two years.
“We had pretty much the same results over all the three periods,” he said.
Asked whether the hotel had filled up as quickly in July this year when compared to the previous two years, Cutajar said significantly: “This year we have an increase in last minute bookings, but occupancy has reached the same levels.”
In the three-star sector, Robbie Borg, Director of Palm Court Apart Hotel, also situated in Qawra, told Business Today that his hotel has seen a dramatic decrease in July this year.
“During this time, we used to send tourists to other hotels because we would be full up. However this year we are barely managing to fill up the hotel up to 70 per cent occupancy,” he said.
Borg explained this has also affected other hotels in the area, which had to search for other sources to fill up their beds after Borg’s British Jet airline closed its doors earlier this year.
Asked about the reasons which led for this decrease in room occupancy, Borg, who gets the most of his tourists from the UK tour operators, said that the prices of package flights to Malta had not come down at a time when the British economy was facing a crisis.

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