Hospitality business: all about hospitality

The Malta Tourism Authority have over the past weeks launched a campaign within the hospitality trade to remind all of us, who are in constant touch with tourists, about the importance of being nice.

This is an excellent initiative, which clearly indicates that the new chairman has diagnosed one of the more frightening ailments in the industry. Without doubt hospitality business is all about hospitality.

Sounds so simple really; only we've lost it. The other day some friends and I were discussing this subject and all agreed that the streets wouldn't seem so dirty, the food so often mediocre, the traffic so chaotic, and the hotel room so shabby, if the people around were friendlier, happier, and sincerely pleased to see you.

Of course we must continue to stress this point. However, it is also a matter of deep-rooted culture and, sadly, it seems that the old world charm and hospitality that we Maltese were so well known for has been eclipsed by the greed for money and the surliness and aggro which one meets all around.

I travel quite frequently to Arab countries in North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean and cannot describe the pure sense of happiness and generosity with which one is both greeted and treated. They beat us hands down.

We act like spoilt children. We've had it all and we've kicked it. Now we grumble because we want it back again. What does one do with spoilt children?

Can people be trained to be hospitable? Can service people like bus drivers, taxi drivers, policemen, bank clerks, street vendors, guides, hotel staff, restaurant, bar, museum, shop, Gozo boat, ferryboat people... can you train an entire nation in basic manners and pleasantry?

I doubt you can after childhood. These things are thought at home, passed on, rubbed off.

If one is going to try, then it should be at school. Old dogs don't (usually) learn new tricks. God, this sure is a tough one, yet without it we ain't going nowhere.