MTA taking all necessary action against Fantasy Tours owner after receiving complaints about holiday rentals

Julian Bonnici The Malta Authority Tourism will be taking all necessary legal action against Karl M. Azzopardi, the owner of the now bankrupt Fantasy Tours, after receiving complaints regarding his operations in the Gozitan short let rental market, The Malta Independent on Sunday has been informed.

This newsroom contacted the MTA after a client of Azzopardi’s complained about his experience in one his properties, namely the farmhouse’s false advertising, the poor quality of basic features and poor hygiene.

According to the post, when confronted with the issues, Azzopardi said to the clients: ‘Sorry, but there’s nothing you can do; you should have seen the property before.”

Azzopardi was the owner of Golden Travel Club Ltd, the company that operated the travel agency ‘Fantasy Tours’, the infamous tour operator that declared bankruptcy six months after it sent an SMS on 6 August 2017 informing clients that the company would be closing down and that their planned holidays would not materialise. The company had only stopped taking bookings the previous day.

Following the fiasco, the government set up an insolvency fund for package travel operators and Fantasy Tour’s clients will be compensated through this fund.

A year after Golden Travel Club Ltd declared bankruptcy, Azzopardi’s father Emmanuel launched Island Delights Ltd, a company that works in the lucrative Gozitan short-let industry. Karl Azzopardi is the company’s general manager. Replying to questions as to what action has been taken against Azzopardi and whether he was able to operate in the industry, given his past indiscretions, the MTA said that, earlier this year, its Gozo Office had already issued Azzopardi with two fines relating to licensing issues. These fines were duly paid and the com- pany submitted the required short-let applications for four farmhouses.

However, the MTA said that all these applications are still pending, because the company had not submitted all the necessary documents.

The owners of two of the properties Azzopardi manages also informed the MTA that they are objecting to his current operation and are not consenting to the issue of the licence.

One case is currently being decided in court, while the other is still being discussed between the owner and the company.