With a number of diving schools seeing an alarming drop in numbers, Malta is in danger of losing more of its dive tourists if it does not upgrade its product. One centre has recorded a 50 per cent drop in turnover over the past two years.

Mark Busuttil, one of the directors of the St Andrew's Divers Cove in Xlendi, who have been in the trade for the past 15 years, says that up until 1994 the business was growing at a healthy pace but after that, the number of divers stabilised and thereafter started to slide.

Dive tourists represent about two to three per cent of total arrivals, but their presence is reflected as five to six per cent of the total annual revenue from tourism. They hire cars, eat out and hire out farmhouses, Mr Busuttil pointed out

If one were to take into account the data released by the National Statistics Office, which showed that 1.13 million people arrived in Malta last year, and that the gross earnings from tourism amounted to Lm261 million, dive tourists represent about 28,000 visitors who between them spent about Lm7 million.

"This year, turnover so far is about 30 per cent below last year's level. Reasons for this loss include the difficulty people face trying to get a flight to Malta. The economic recession in Europe is also leaving people with less money to spend.

"The quality of our product is not improving at all. The general feeling is that the government is ignoring dive tourism completely.

"Just to mention a simple fact: spear fishing with the aid of compressed air cylinders is outlawed in Europe but not in Malta. It's incredible that such a practice is allowed to go on, which shows how insensitive governments have been," argued Mr Busuttil.

One of the ways of improving the product is to have more wrecks - Gozo has only one, the Xlendi.

"The ridiculous thing is that the wrecks in Malta and Gozo have turned out to be good sites for fishermen who are allowed to fish there with impunity when such sites should have been declared conservation zones.

"Last week I was diving in the caves at Comino, where fish have become accustomed to being fed by divers. But zigzagging along the mouth of these caves was a net about 150 metres long.

"One has to keep a keen eye not to have any of the divers getting entangled in such a wall of netting. This is not to mention the roar of the propellers of tourist boats, which, incredibly, are allowed to enter these caves.

"Would it be such a big deal for the government to prohibit the laying of such nets at dive sites and for boat captains to respect divers by keeping their distance when they see the divers' marker buoys and flag on the surface of the water?" Mr Busuttil asked.

Dive centres in their majority are discussing the possibility of setting up a marine foundation, following the lead of deep-sea diver Emi Farrugia, to work towards the improvement of the product.

"We are suggesting that each diver donates Lm2 that will go towards buying more ships to use as wrecks, to carry out monitoring programmes and provide entry to inaccessible areas," Mr Busuttil said.

Mr Farrugia noted that the Malta Tourism Authority was prepared to back and kick-start this initiative.

"It is extremely important for all the stakeholders to come together with the MTA and help to start improving and managing dive sites," Mr Farrugia said.

Apart from the fact that they are good spenders, divers also visit during the winter months: the diving season extends to six months of the year.

"This is a niche - this is what the MTA is now calling it, not having done anything to sustain it. It is the life underwater that people come to see. If divers come to see the caves and the drop-offs, these features are there but you don't see any fish.

"Divers who first came to Malta years ago keep asking whatever happened to the fish. Even fishermen complain they no longer catch anything. The sea has been over-fished and it is not being given the time to regenerate," Mr Busuttil said.

Apart from all this, Malta's main competitor is the Red Sea - and it is a cheaper destination.

"For example, the flight to Malta from Italy works out at half the distance to the Red Sea yet comes to more than the whole package to that divers' mecca."

Martin Vella, managing director of Subway Diving School, who has been in business for the past 18 years, said the market had been improving until 2001. For the past two to three years, however, it has dropped by half.

"The diving industry around the world is very healthy and while most other countries worldwide have registered marked improvements in arrivals, this has not been the case in Malta.

"The main reason is that our product is stagnant. While our competitors such as the Red Sea have a lot of pluses, dive centres there are also getting all the assistance they ask for from the authorities, such as adding to the number of wrecks or laying pontoons to provide accessibility, without any of the red tape one comes up against here.

"For example, in Israel fish farms have caused so much damage that people prefer to go diving in Egypt which has a lot of marine parks.

"We need more fish for divers to see and this can only be achieved by protecting wreck sites. To add insult to injury, the lack of regulations has led to the taking of all the adult groupers as well as to the setting up of tuna pens close to some of the best dive spots," Mr Vella claimed. The quality of the water in St Paul's Bay has changed completely since a fish farm started operating between Mistra and Selmun more than 10 years ago.

"I used to have a dive centre at Xemxija because it was close to St Paul's Islands but I had to close it down because now the sea has turned green."

When the Pope first visited Malta in 1990, the diving community had placed a concrete statue of Christ near St Paul's Islands in 18 metres of water which then was crystal clear. One could see the statue from the surface. However, after a couple of years, the visibility turned so bad that this was no longer possible, Mr Vella noted.

"Dive centres work miracles to bring repeat visitors. Malta has an extremely good reputation for the training of divers, from beginners up to instructor level. The teaching quality is second to none.

"But those who come to Malta do so in the hope we will improve our product. For example, the coast in Florida from Fort Lauderdale to Key West has 90 wrecks to which new ones are added regularly.

"But it seems we do not plan ahead by having several other wrecks in order to have other dive sites in the coming years.

"All the entities and stakeholders who have an interest in pushing this industry ought to join forces to set out a strategy on how the dive product can be improved.

"The idea is to create a foundation which will be a non-government organisation in a position to raise money to help enhance the product," Mr Vella said.

The raising of funds by dive centres by asking divers for a contribution is common practice in the Red Sea and in Florida, to mention just two places.

Mr Farrugia said the money that would go to improve the dive sites would be collected by the individual dive centres.

"The marine foundation, which would be a non-profit organisation, would generate money both from the divers who visit Malta as well as from other sources, apart from the diving industry.

"It would ensure that the money collected would be used directly to revamp the product. The MTA has some seed money that will help set the ball rolling," Mr Farrugia said.