Malta in contact with UK in bid to secure spot on coveted travel green list

Malta is in direct and regular contact with the UK to make sure that it is among the countries to be added to the list given the green light by the UK as safe travel destinations for holiday-goers, tourism minister Clayton Bartolo told BusinessToday.

“We are working with the UK government and the High Commission here in Malta to make sure to be added to the UK’s Green List when more countries are added to it in a couple of weeks,” Bartolo said.

The UK is essential to Malta’s tourist industry and the country had been hoping that making it onto the green list would kickstart the sector once Malta opens its doors to tourists on 1 June.

UK tourists can travel to the countries on the Green List without needing to quarantine. Portugal including the Azores and Madeira, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands and Israel are on the UK’s green travel list, as are remote Ascension Island and South Georgia and South Sandwich Island.

Malta made onto the amber list means that UK travellers visiting Malta would have to self-isolate for 10 days upon their return home.

Bartolo said the feedback he had received so far pointed to a positive outcome but insisted the government would remain in constant contact with the UK government and the High Commission until the list is updated.

“UK tourism is integral to our industry and welcoming tourists from the UK is a crucial part of our tourist recovery plan,” he said. “But we also remain cautious and prudent as we want to ensure that anything we put in place now is sustainable over the long run.”

He said that he had also received encouraging feedback from local operators who were pointing at July and August as possibly being very strong, if current indications are sustained.

In a further boost to the industry’s morale, the European Commission yesterday said that Malta’s fast vaccination drive, paired with a gradual easing of restrictions in the EU and a high vaccination rate in the UK, was set to put the tourism sector on the path to recovery in the second half of the year.

“This is precisely what we are forecasting and it is why we pushed so hard and are pushing hard to be included in the UK’s Green List,” he told BusinessToday.

Spring Economic forecast

The European Commission’s Spring 2021 Economic Forecast sees Malta experiencing a robust recovery in 2021 and 2022 once tourism bounces back in the economy.

In its report, the Commission points towards Malta’s “faster-than-expected rollout of vaccinations” and the situation in the EU and UK markets, as contributors to tourism recovery in the second half of this year.

Beyond the tourism sector, which was decimated as a result of the pandemic, services exports and household consumption contracted sharply in 2020, contributing to a significant fall in Malta's GDP.

On the other hand, financial services and gaming sector exports continued to perform robustly.

At a wider macroeconomic level, Malta's current account deficit is expected to widen further this year, before decreasing in 2022 with recovering exports and imports.

Inflation is expected to rise to 1.2% in 2021, and then further increase to 1.5% in 2022.

The government deficit, which increased to over 10% of GDP in 2020, is projected to increase again to 11.8% of GDP before declining to 5.5% in 2022.

The initial increase in the deficit was due to major spending on pandemic-mitigating measures, and on the revenue side, aggravated by a steep fall in household and tourist consumption, which led to a drop in indirect tax revenue.

Corporate tax revenues also took a plunge, reflecting the worsened profitability of companies.

With regards to government debt, Malta's debt-to-GDP ratio is set to reach 65.5% in 2022.