Watch: Malta cannot handle 4.7m tourists to fill hotel rooms - minister

The tourism minister on Thursday underlined the importance of sustainability for the sector as a reacted to a study which found that Malta would need to attract 4.7 million visitors every year to maintain 80% occupancy for hotels in operation or in the pipeline. "Malta cannot handle that number of tourists and neither is the government trying to attract those numbers," Clayton Bartolo told journalists while launching a Malta Tourism Observatory. The study was commissioned by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association and its results were announced last week. “We want to make sure that every person who visits the country has a good experience and this is where sustainability comes in,” Bartolo said.  Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo. He said he was encouraging investors to explore new avenues when it comes to tourism. “We strongly encourage them to do their homework and make sure that they can sustain the investment in the hotels that they build,” he said. “Besides, there are other types of investment that can be made in the industry that aren’t necessarily hotels.” “The Malta Tourism Authority and the government are promoting other niches that will no doubt yield the desired...