Edward Zammit Lewis, Tourism Minister of Malta, launched a public discussion this week on the tourism sector legislation reforms that will see the introduction of new licences under the “late night entertainment establishment” umbrella, which will include “gentleman’s clubs”. The Honourable Dr. Zammit Lewis added, there will be further enforcement under the new reforms against unlicensed accommodation.
The reform includes a number of points as mentioned above, as well as;
- a new act regarding tourism and travel services in Malta, which regulates the constitution and operations of the Tourism Authority
- a legal notice that regulates the process and conditions of all operator licences in the industry
- a list of standards and current references to the tourism police for different sectors licensed by the Tourism Authority
- two legal notices regarding travel agent obligations who organise package holiday travel and timeshare operators.
The minister said,
“We’re not doing this for government revenue, but we want accommodation to be licensed in order to guarantee the product”.
The minister also spoke of how the simplification process related to all procedures and that streamlining in the law and subsidiary legislation will reduce the excessively long processes.
“Reduction in bureaucracy was an electoral promise, and this reform is another step to achieving this goal”.
An insolvency fund will be created, the minister said. “It was supposed to be created in 2002 when the law was changed, and we are now in a situation where the EU requires such a fund to be set up. In the coming weeks, this fund will be established and it will protect consumers”.
New measures will be put in place for standards, along with numerous amendments to existing standards, in various operational sectors. The minister added, “Consumers are the protagonist in these amendments”.
This reform will act as a legal base to regulate and measure the operation within the tourism sector, the Minister said.
He explained that the laws regulating this sector, also called the Travel services and Tourism in Malta act, which was established in 1999, alongside the creation of the Tourism Authority. The act has been amended on a number of occasions. A n additional 17 legal notices also regulate the industry.
The minister appointed a committee last year, led by consultant George Micallef, along with architect David Mifsud, Kevin Fsadni, Frank Farrugia and Dr Frank Testa.
The Minister said that this reform will primarily address the problems faced by those in the industry, but will also be seen through a legal lens.
George Micallef, Tourism Consultant, said that rather than trying to arrange the issues that exist in the current law, they decided to go through with the reform.
Micallef said every operator in the sector, aside from tourist guides, would need to secure third party liability insurance.
Another change, he added, is that measures for operators will not be through a legal notice, but will be published on the MTA website, and there will be some mandatory standards. This way if minor changes to standards need to be made, it would be easier.
The categories for accommodation will also expand to include boutique hotels, serviced apartments and diffused hotels (within historic cities) where they are very small establishments and accommodation could be provided up to 200m away in another building than where breakfast is served and reception exists.
BB residence will be added for private accommodation. These currently operate under host families regulations, but will now fall under its own area within the reform.
The documents can be found on www.konsultazzjoni.gov.mt.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk