Malta Hotels Caught Napping

With a drop in visitor numbers this year of ten per cent or more

, some of the hotels in Malta used to staying open year round are cutting costs by mothballing their operations over the winter months.

Closing down for the winter is common in many holiday destinations, but for Malta it's unusual as visitor arrivals are year round, thanks largely to the good Malta weather during the winter months.

The explanation lies in that this is the second winter in a row where winter bookings are slow, and no matter how good the Malta weather is it doesn't make up for a poor economy in its mainstay UK market - or help British people when it comes to exchanging Sterling for Euros as the British Pound is doing badly against the Euro.

But does mothballing a hotel during unusually quiet times impact on its ability to do well during the busier spring, summer and autumn months?

Malta is an island that attracts the retired and older generations for the winter months, and they often return again for a week or two in the late spring or early summer - and often they have a favourite hotel.

They have no reason to change the hotel they stay in as they feel comfortable there, and get to know the local area.

But take away their opportunity to stay there in the winter they will have no choice but to find an alternative from the hotels in Malta that are open - and might like it enough to change their second trip to that one too.

So while mothballing a hotel in the winter might make sound economic sense short term, longer term the hotels that close their doors might find their occupancy levels dropping off at busier times.

The number of people taking holidays in Malta this year has dropped, in common with most holiday destinations, but the island has fared better than some and current thinking is that it could be a drop of around ten per cent this year, and if the economies around Europe improve in 2010 next year could see a rise on the number of people who took Malta holidays this year.

In recent years the cost of taking a holiday in Malta has tumbled, thanks to the introduction of cheap Malta flights from carriers like Ryanair who started popular low cost flights from both London and Dublin to Malta a few years ago.

by: Henry Ashworth

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