The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) yesterday reported that the performance of Malta’s hotel industry during the first quarter of this year registered positive growth but operating c
The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) yesterday reported that the performance of Malta’s hotel industry during the first quarter of this year registered positive growth but operating costs exceeded revenue gains in the three- and four-star categories.
MHRA President, George Micallef, yesterday lauded MTA’s efforts for the results achieved in the fist quarter, saying that “the sustained increase in tourist arrivals to our islands in the first quarter of 2011 is indeed a positive and encouraging trend for all operators in the hospitality sector, and was a major contributory factor to the occupancy and rate improvements being registered across all hotel categories, albeit far more contained in the three- and four-star categories”.
Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett departed the island yesterday to meet with Her Excellency Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta and Patron of the Mediterranean Tourism Foundation (MTF), to discuss the country’s possible participation and collaboration, in the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Center.
“It was a great honor for me to receive an invitation to meet with the President of Malta to discuss sustainable tourism and ways in which they can partner with us in the establishment of our Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre. I look forward to having fruitful discussions with President Preca and her team, and I am sure this will result in very positive news for our mission of protecting the tourism industry,” said Minister Bartlett.
From Covid to Cardinal -2020, the year in photos
Photos by Miguela Xuereb
Endings and beginnings. That is what we face in the last week of every year. This year, as a professional photographer I witnessed a multitude of challenges. Not only was it notable for the incredible impact which COVID-19 had on health, society and the economy, it was also a year which started with considerable political tumult.
January
The fire at Marsa open centre left hundreds of migrants waiting outside for hours including a few who needed medical assistance at the scene. Regrettably, the comments on FaceBook show a public largely desensitized to the plight of these unfortunates.
Anthony Manduca pays tribute to some of the prominent Maltese people who died this year.
Cardinal Prospero Grech, died on December 30, 2019, aged 94.
The Augustinian scholar who became the second cardinal in Maltese history was one of 22 cardinals appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in February 2012. Once described as “possibly the most intelligent man alive” by English priest Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith in an article in the Catholic Herald, Cardinal Grech served as a professor at the Augustine Institute in Rome. In 1970, he co-founded the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum attached to the Lateran University in Rome and served as its president from 1971 to 1979. In 2011, he was appointed a Companion of the National Order of Merit.