Cruise liners

As a resident of the Grand Harbour area, I could not help but notice the decline of cruise liner visits in the harbour. If I am not mistaken, last year we had a record number of cruise liners calling, with even seven cruise liners in harbour at one time.

The Times even published some nice shots of some of these liners throughout last summer. But unfortunately this summer we only could see photos of destroyers and aircraft carriers. Just a few days ago we had the second visit of a large American carrier for this summer.

I do not like to sound as a pacifist, but I would certainly prefer the sight of liners instead of military vessels. What's happening with our tourism? Can the MTA give us a hint why large cruise liners, like the Royal Caribbean, have not included Malta in their itinerary for this summer? If it were not for My Travel, which decided to use Malta as a port of embarkation, this year would have been much worse.

I hope for a better summer 2005 for all the 40,000 Maltese citizens, whose livelihood depends on tourism.