Mellieħa Bay Hotel to be demolished

All employees at Mellieħa Bay Hotel have been notified of their forthcoming redundancy amid a plan to demolish the complex and replace it by a brand new five-star resort. A company spokesman told The Sunday Times of Malta that the existing complex will cease operations later this year and while no precise date was given, no bookings are being accepted after the end of October. Inaugurated in 1969, Mellieħa Bay Hotel was at the time Malta’s largest hotel with 428 beds and had cost £1 million to build. Its opening heralded a new era in Malta’s post-Independence economy, a major step in promoting the island in the UK market, through Thomson Organisation Ltd. Thomson had started operating chartered flights as part of an all-inclusive package offered to British tourists. The hotel spokesman told the newspaper that, 50 years down the line, the ageing building requires a major overhaul and it has been decided to start this process by closing it down towards the end of the year. “The directors of the company are looking into a new project consisting of the building of a brand new five-star resort hotel that will be a major addition to Malta’s tourism product. The employees are being...