‘Tourism numbers have increased despite spring hunting’ – MHRA President

Malta’s tourism figures have consistently increased over the last five years in spite of the spring hunting season, Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association President Tony Zahra told MaltaToday.

In 2007, the MHRA had warned that hunting practices “harm the tourism industry”.

They said that a hunters’ demonstration in Valletta could cause “irreparable harm to Malta’s international image at a time when all stakeholders in the tourism industry are working hard to reverse the negative trends the industry suffered last year”.

“Negative press about Malta’s spring hunting season has persisted over the last five years, and yet tourism numbers have continued to rise,” Zahra told MaltaToday. “Of course, we don’t enjoy the negative press, but we want to be objective instead of coming out and saying that spring hunting will harm tourism.”

He said that Malta must show its maturity and that everyone must respect the law and the result of a referendum ruling in favour of spring hunting. He pointed out that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said that he will not tolerate illegal hunting and that he will not shy away from closing the hunting season early in the face of illegalities, as he had done in the autumn hunting season.

Speaking on the BBC, conservationist and vice-president of the League Against Cruel Sports Bill Oddie had described the spring hunting referendum result as a “pretty depressing comment on humanity”.

“We live in horrible times, where horrible men- and these are men, there’s hardly any women involved in it at all- their idea of sport is to go out killing wildlife for no reason whatsoever,” Oddie said.

Malta faced a Twitter backlash as the news of the referendum result broke out.

Hundreds of tweets poured in under the hashtags #malta and #maltaslaughter, expressing disgust at the result and calling on the Maltese to be ashamed of themselves .
One common theme in several postings was the idea of boycotting Maltese tourism.

Ex- Tory MP Sir John Randall tweeted “Very, very disappointed. Spring hunting will remain in Malta. My boycott continues.”
“I know @ChrisGPackham  said we should visit Malta, but I'm sorry I can't go to a country that allows this,” and “SHout_Malta very sad...thank you to everyone who tried to end this awful killing. ..I won't be visiting Malta I'm afraid..can't bear it,” read others.

The United Kingdom’s High Commission to Malta also issued an update to its travel safety report for tourists to Malta, asking visitors to be “vigilant” in rural areas due to the opening of the hunting season.

They pointed out that around 450,000 British tourists visit Malta every year, and that most visits are trouble-free.