‘Embarrassed’ guesthouse owner will pay new tourist tax

A Gozo guesthouse owner has decided to pay the new tourist tax himself because he is “too embarrassed” to charge guests given the poor state of the environment. “I am so dismayed by the environment in Gozo that I am too embarrassed to charge my guests extra and, therefore, I have decided that I will be paying the tax out of my own pocket,” Peter Llewellyn, who runs a three-bedroom guesthouse in Sannat, told this newspaper. The 50c per night tourist eco-tax, announced in the last Budget, should have come into effect last month but had to be put on hold as operators complained about not having the necessary infrastructure in place to collect and manage the tax. Mr Llewellyn estimates his decision will cost him about €200 a year, basing his calculation on the number of nights clients spent at his guesthouse last year. The tax, capped at €5, is expected to generate about €6 million a year and the funds will go to a new public private partnership that will involve the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association and the government. Mr Llewellyn noted that, though there had been some investment in Gozo to spruce up the island in an attempt to attract more tourists, there were still too...