‘Valletta’s main street needs to be turned into a luxury shopping destination’ – MHRA President

President of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) Tony Zahra has underlined his wish to see the main street in Valletta (Republic Street) turned into a luxury shopping destination.

Speaking with Maltaceos.mt, the MHRA President was asked about proposals made by the two main political parties (the Labour and Nationalist Parties) during the electoral campaign, and about what he feels should be the focus for the tourism sector in the next legislature.

Speaking generally about the proposals the two parties made so far, Mr Zahra described the situation as “a campaign between the two parties as to who is going to give the most giveaways,” but he says that nobody is talking about where the money is going to come from.

Told that not much has thus far been seen in terms of proposals specifically for the tourism sector, Mr Zahra believes that it is a reflection of the state of the industry, as “we’re in a reasonably good place. We have a record number of arrivals and record amount of spend. Consequently, now we need to identify where we want to go. Vision 2050 was supposed to do that. I’m not so sure that it achieved it, but we now need to concentrate on getting a higher spend client to Malta.”

Raising the spend per arrival has to be the main objective for the next legislature, Mr Zahra was asked about the association’s ideas for the next legislature.

“We need less accommodation on the cheaper end of the market, and more on the upper end of the market. We need to turn our main streets in Valletta into a luxury shopping destination. We need to avoid turning Valletta into a food court,” he says.

This is how the country can attract higher spending tourists, Mr Zahra adds.

As things stand today, he said it would be difficult for a tourist with a large budget to find a shop where they could spend €5,000 on something for their spouse for instance.

Questioned whether, in order to bring this change in Valletta about, he believes incentives or disincentives are needed, Mr Zahra says: “Absolutely, in the old days, when I lived in the UK, you would have what was called a parade of shops. You would have a butcher, a news agent, and various other shops. If the butcher shop closed. You couldn’t change it into a news agent which was next door to you. You had to have it as a butcher shop, so that you’d have a selection of shops.”

“If you walk down Valletta today, you will find that there are many, many restaurants offering pasta and pizza, but very few offering something different.”