Editorial: Relaunching tourism after COVID

As the new cabinet gets into its stride, one of the linchpins of economic recovery going forward will be tourism, which accounts for a huge chunk of the island’s GDP.

Clayton Bartolo has been retained as tourism minister and his challenge will be help steer the country in the right direction to revive this vital sector.

In theory, his work will be aided by a strong, accumulated travel appetite in Europe, as evidenced by a steady increase in holiday bookings to southern European destinations. The Easter tourism flows will be a litmus test for the local industry, which is looking to achieve the 2019 levels of visitors.

Logistics issues recently grabbed the headlines. A few days before the election, Charles Pace, the head of civil aviation, flagged safety concerns over long lines at the airport’s arrival lounge caused by COVID checks.

Alan Borg, the Malta International Airport CEO, asked the authorities to lift all travel-related restrictions, for fear of putting off prospective travellers.

The juggling of health and economic priorities will continue to be challenging for the government. It would be dangerous to assume that COVID is now completely behind us.

The newly sworn-in...