News of COVID-19 vaccine sparks renewed hope among hospitality industry

There is renewed hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) has said, reacting to the announcement that a COVID-19 vaccine may soon be on the horizon.

On Monday news broke that a preliminary analysis on the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine showed that it could prevent more than 90% of people from getting COVID-19. The developers described it as a “great day for science and humanity”. Their vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised.

MHRA said that it has always maintained that there needed to be a “medical solution for the start of a recovery in the hospitality industry,” and that this news could therefore be taken to mean that the industry could now start forecasting a start to the recovery.

“The many long months since the Pandemic started have brought the whole of the hospitality industry worldwide to its knees as well as affected a lot of other service industries. Malta is no exception, and it is only thanks to the government support for the industry, through wage subsidies and other help, that the island has managed to ward off serious unemployment and possible closures,” President of MHRA, Tony Zahra said.

Zahra said that they now look to the future with much courage – and will continue to interact with the government at the highest level to draft out a solid marketing plan so that the island can be in a position to compete aggressively as the tourism industry ramps up to a return to some form of normality

“MHRA believes that there will be a gradual return to pre-COVID normality perhaps taking two to three years to get back to close to 2019 levels of activity. Consequently, it is expected that sun destinations will all be competing aggressively to capture as large a share of a smaller market as possible. Malta has to be ready to compete aggressively in this environment,” Zahra said.