Mediterranean Observer
The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) welcomes the new accommodation reform announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism Ian Borg, describing it as a significant step toward a more sustainable and quality-driven tourism model for Malta.
By removing the additional height allowances previously granted to hotels and introducing clear room and bed limits, Government is signalling a decisive move from volume-based growth to a tourism strategy focused on sustainability. MHRA supports this direction, recognising that while visitor numbers remain essential for Malta’s competitiveness and the vitality of its hospitality sector, these numbers must be carefully managed to protect the visitor experience, minimise pressure on communities, and sustain Malta’s reputation for quality.
Short-term rentals are now an integral part of Malta’s accommodation mix and therefore must be regulated and managed with the same responsibility, service standards, and enforcement applied to collective accommodation such as hotels and guesthouses. This is not a battle against short-lets but a call for consistency, quality, and fairness, ensuring that all forms of accommodation enhance the tourism product rather than cause uncontrolled disruption that can generate community resistance and diminish the experience for more discerning visitors.
In this light, MHRA welcomes the pilot consultations with the Swieqi and Valletta Local Councils, viewing them as an important opportunity to refine and test the new framework before it is extended nationally. These pilots should prioritise waste management, accessibility, and neighbourhood integration, ensuring that tourism development supports both community wellbeing and economic resilience while setting a replicable model for other localities.
In this context, MHRA observes that some opportunities to enhance standards appear to have been overlooked. In particular, better regulation of 3-star hotels seems to be missing, and measures such as separate entrances for short-term rentals (STRs), which can help address issues in shared residential buildings, were not included. MHRA emphasizes that it is now crucial to set the right legal parameters and policy direction to ensure fairness, consistency, and high-quality standards across all forms of accommodation. The success of these reforms will ultimately depend on proper enforcement and clear interpretation of the regulations. To achieve this, the Association calls for the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) to be fully resourced and empowered to implement the rules effectively. The approach should prioritise raising quality through staff training, rigorous standards enforcement, and fair but firm compliance, ensuring that operators who fail to meet minimum requirements are removed from the market.
Yesterday’s announcement builds on a strong foundation that reflects many of the principles outlined in the Carrying Capacity Study conducted by Deloitte and commissioned by MHRA. MHRA commends the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) for its excellent work in advancing quality standards and regulatory oversight. This reform must be viewed in the wider context of other initiatives designed to elevate visitor quality, including improved connectivity to new markets such as New York, the capping of visitors in Comino, and other interventions aimed at raising standards across the sector.
If managed effectively, these reforms have the potential to deliver a higher-quality, better-balanced, and more competitive tourism sector that benefits both the economy and local communities.
