PRESS
RELEASE
Hotelstars Union – Malta is the first
South European country joining the common star classification
(Vienna, 16th
October 2012) Tourism destination Malta has been the 12th European
country to be admitted to the Hotelstars Union (HSU).
Malta’s
accession at the last HSU meeting in Malta has today
published revised accommodation legislation as a result of which Tourism
Destination Malta is the latest member of the Hotelstars Union. Vienna can be considered as a special milestone in the
development of the HSU. The initiative, founded 2009 in Prague, now consists of
twelve European countries spread Europe-wide, from Sweden in the North to Malta
in the South. With the harmonised criteria catalogue for hotel classification,
HSU has succeeded in offering all guests and hoteliers in Europe a transparent
and comparable system as well as in displaying the different regional, cultural
and climatic requirements.
The President
of the Austrian Professional Hotel Association in the Austrian Economic Chamber
and this year’s chairman of the HSU Klaus Ennemoser considers this flexibility
to be the strength of the common hotel classification: "On the one hand, we
succeeded in building a harmonised system with common rules, on the other hand,
we incorporated necessary differentiations in the hotels according to the
market.” What makes Malta’s joining so special is in Ennemoser’s opinion that
the HSU’s offer for a common hotel classification now spreads over the whole of
Europe. "Especially nowadays, where we more and more talk about the tourism
destination Europe, we do not only need a common profile but also a
strengthened common understanding of products and services. The HSU has
implemented this in now twelve European countries. Everybody can verify this.”
Kent Nystrom, President of HOTREC – the European umbrella organisation for hotels, restaurants
and cafés –, added: "The Hotelstars Union is one of
the best examples of successful market driven initiatives in Europe.
Cross-border harmonisation of hotel classification criteria is a very difficult
task, taking into account the geographic and cultural differences. Nonetheless
this initiative has proven that market players themselves can overcome
efficiently such big difficulties without high burdens.”
Next to
the new member Malta and the founding countries Austria, Czech Republic,
Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Hungary, also Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania and Luxembourg belong to the HSU, the patronage of which
HOTREC took up. HSU is open to all HOTREC member countries, which at the moment
are 26 European countries.
Your person of
contact:
Hotelstars Union Secretariat
c/o Austrian
Chamber of Commerce
Austrian Professional Hotel Association
Mag. Matthias Koch
Phone: (+43) 590 900-3554
Email: hotels@wko.at
Web:
www.hotelstars.eu