Malta's reputation as a friendly nation is fast diminishing as tourists constantly complain to the Malta Tourism Authority about "rude" and "arrogant" attitudes.
Bus drivers have been described as "ignorant, ill-mannered and downright rude to holiday makers", while taxi drivers received the same criticism for their boorish attitude and for overcharging.
Littering and the bad state of public toilets also rank high on the tourists' list of complaints.
In general, rudeness, intonation of voice and body language of those working in the service industry still left a lot to be desired, even though many were polite, according to Marika Doublet, senior executive at MTA's customer service unit.
The unit, which was set up a year ago, deals with the flow of complaints from tourists via letter, e-mail or telephone among other means.
Depending on the type of complaint, the unit then communicates with the various authorities and organisations informing them of the complaint and where possible, putting forward suggestions to improve the situation.
"We get quite a lot of complaints about over-charging and criticism that there is too much litter or that the public toilets are not clean, lack of toilet paper and soap dispensers," Ms Doublet said.
"The majority of complaints refer to the rude attitude towards visitors, especially if they would have complained or pointed out a perceived injustice, such as slow service or poor food at a restaurant," she said.
"Of course, we are a complaints' section so that is what we see. It does not mean that there are no positive comments," Ms Doublet said.
Ms Doublet said that since January the unit had received 200 complaints, mainly from Britons and English-speaking visitors.
However, she believes this figure is just the tip of the iceberg and there are those who would have had a bad experience but since they were not fluent in English they hesitated to write in.
A German tourist dining at a trattoria-type place had the following comment to make: "I had salmon from the grill which was not fresh and had a bad sour taste. My wife tasted it and came to the same conclusion. I had to pay for the salmon dish though. No excuse from the owner."
Another foreigner dining at an upmarket place in Spinola Bay pointed out that his beer mug had more froth than beer - the manager's reaction was "abusive, offensive and aggressive".
A disabled lady, waiting on the bus-stop, saw the bus advance at high speed and to stop it signalled with her leg.
"The driver came down from the bus screaming and gesticulating with wild gestures for no reason - he looked like an angry gorilla," she wrote in her letter to the MTA.
Complaints on bus drivers are also quite frequent though the bus service has been described as "very good indeed and excellent value for money".
"However, I saw many an elderly passenger reduced almost to tears by their unhelpful and unkind attitude. We realise that the Maltese temperament is different from ours but when you consider that the bus driver is one of the first points of contact a visitor has with the island it surely must be made clear to them that they are causing untold damage to your holiday industry," another visitor pointed out.
These complaints are being taken very seriously and MTA tourism support services manager Noel Falzon said they were addressing these issues in the training courses organised by the authority.
Through the Leonardo Da Vinci programme, the MTA sent 10 taxi drivers and 12 bus drivers on a training course to Portsmouth in the UK.
"We have also applied for EU structural funds so that between next year and 2006 we can provide similar training locally," Mr Falzon said.
Shop assistants, as well as museum and local council employees will also be provided with training courses.
"Maltese were more hospitable before but nowadays we seem to be losing that friendly touch. It does not take much to be friendly - the Maltese should look at the tourism industry as a national one and take care of tourists who care to visit the island," he urged.