"There is no room for complacency" quipped Joe Preca at the end of his interview with Fiona Galea Debono (August 23) and this statement can be echoed in a number of other issues concerning the island's largest and most effective socio-economic industry.
We hear complaints from different sectors, time after time: we lament the fact that we are no longer the hospitable island we once were; we even try to justify our situation in terms of intricate statistics and bar charts to show how we have lost a percentage of tourism arrivals this period or lost a certain tourist sector in that period. The truth is are we being honest with ourselves? Can we honestly say that in today's competitive world we are giving the visitor a good "run for his money"?
We have plenty of opportunities - and I will not repeat again what I have mentioned ad nauseam in the various articles I have written on the subject for the past years - if only we took the time to use our imagination and foresight. But, unfortunately, yes, we do tend to give in to complacency. Let's just mention a few examples.
When it comes to cleanliness we are a complacent race, we prefer to drop litter where it pleases us rather than dispose of our refuse in a proper and orderly fashion.
When it comes to development we are complacent because we put more emphasis on getting rich quick rather than on what the results of unsustainable progress could bring to this small island state.
When it comes to being hospitable we are complacent because we have developed a great affinity to arrogance and plain uncouth behaviour... I read in The Sunday Times (August 22) an item about the boatman who threatened (no less!) a group of tourists. Are we becoming so barbaric, so uncouth that we actually threaten our visitors like some backward banana republic? Who do these upstarts really think they are? It is time we dealt with these "cowboys" by launching a serious campaign of naming and shaming.
Until we wipe these blots from our product development slate there can be no progress.
We also need to learn to be objective rather than subjective when it comes to action. There is a great tendency to resort to our culture of parochialism in everything we do and say. Tourism is about treating our guests with respect and making them feel at ease and stress-free; it is not about making them suspicious about our every move and action.
We need to concentrate on the opportunities and benefits but we also need to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the support services.
Oh yes, we are certainly complacent! But to find the solutions we need to look inside each and everyone of us before putting the blame on authorities or councils. We need to change our attitude and behaviour and by we I include all the public sectors, including Parliament. We need to become a more caring society - one that shows an iota of national pride and patriotism, those two qualities which seem to have died along with traditional festas and culture! Let us do this together, it certainly will make things easier in the long term!
jzar1@onvol.net.mt
www.maltatourismsociety.org.mt