The GSD has said that the Government’s most recent statement on the new CEO of the Gibraltar Tourist Board is “nothing other than political posturing designed to justify another bad decision and short-sighted policy.” The party says that this is what we have come to expect from a Government which is “more interested in the attention grabbing headline and photo-op” than they are in ensuring that their policies work and deliver value for money.

A statement continued: “Before even deciding who the successful candidate will be, or understanding his or her view on how the Gibraltar product should be managed and evolved, the Government has decided he will be based thousands of miles away from where the core of the activities is taking place. They need to explain why they have already taken this decision.

“We also question whether the UK is in fact our source market, when the number of visitors coming to Gibraltar from Spain outstrips the number that come from the UK. The Government needs to rethink its position from the ground up. What happens with Spain or other emerging markets: are we to employ other CEOs or equivalent in each of these jurisdictions?”

The shadow Minister for Tourism, Damon Bossino said: “At a time when the set-up locally needs proper support, focus and guidance to help Gibraltar’s tourism sector navigate beyond what has and continues to be a huge blow with the double- whammy that Covid and Brexit represent, the last thing you do is send the captain of the ship thousands of miles away – but in this process it is the FIRST thing that this Government has done. People are right to be scratching their heads in astonishment.

“If the Government pursues this policy, it will just be another to add to the fast growing list of bad decisions – the Line Wall Road pedestrianisation which was unceremoniously dropped like a hot brick by the Chief Minister, but not before it had also cost the tax payer, hundreds of thousands of pounds, in wasted designs; the Cruz appointment in Hong Kong, which cost the tax payer several hundreds of thousands of pounds annually and produces what, despite the fact that according to Sir. Joe our economy is ‘unstable’.

“None of the Government’s self-congratulatory and unsubstantiated statements deflect from the central point which is that Gibraltar’s Tourist Board will lose its CEO in Gibraltar at absolutely the wrong time. After all, a rudder is attached to the vessel and not 1,500 miles away. That is why, in the party’s view, the policy is both misguided and ill-thought out.

“Furthermore, the tourism industry does not unilaterally welcome this move – far from it.”