Tourism authority chief expresses optimism

The only way forward for Malta's tourism industry was by improving standards and providing visitors with value for money, according to the chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority, Romwald Lungaro-Mifsud.

The island had to go for high yield visitors, since the emerging global trend showed that people were travelling more frequently and spending less.

Referring to comments by Winston J. Zahra, former president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, on Tuesday, that hotels faced "a wash-out" in the first quarter, Mr Lungaro-Mifsud said he was optimistic for the remainder of the year if everybody pulled the same rope and steered clear of personal agendas.

"If one looks at international data, the market was sluggish from all source markets to most destinations. These are the market trends at the moment. So, yes, Malta is suffering like other destinations," he told The Times.

Mr Lungaro-Mifsud was asked why the target to entice 50,000 tourists to Malta in 2005 was not reached, and why the Tourism Minister was suddenly referring to two targets - an optimum target and a more realistic one - when hoteliers were clearly aware of one goal.

"The optimum targets are those which the government sets and decides on. That is the target the MTA aspires to achieve. However, the market changes so quickly that the optimum target can become quite unachievable, or it can be exceeded through new business," he said.

Yet, not even 50 per cent of the optimum target was achieved. What went wrong?

"Tourism is a worrying situation in most places. Mr Zahra says that tour operators are considering diverting 10 to 20 per cent of their market share. We are living in a world where competition is increasing at a ferocious rate," he said.

"All of a sudden Eastern Europe is fighting for business. Plus there are the traditional mass tourism destinations such as Tunisia, Turkey, Red Sea resorts and Morocco that we have to compete against," Mr Lungaro-Mifsud added.

But was not Malta aware of this competition? These markets did not emerge overnight.

"Of course we were aware, but we cannot stop competition. I have just returned from the Middle East Tourism Summit in Jordan and the development they talk of is billions of tourists. Because of our size, we have to carry on improving our product offer, not just the building, but also the service, the smile and the courtesy. We will do this through branding to bring back the culture of hospitality," he insisted.

Has not Malta been talking ad nauseam about bringing back the smile to tourism? Will branding bring about the necessary change?

Mr Lungaro-Mifsud replied that branding Malta would take a minimum of three years to achieve, because culture change did not happen overnight.

"Malta's branding image was launched last July with the industry. We showed how our competitors were projecting themselves in a cohesive manner, yet Malta was promoting itself in a fragmented way," he added.

The MTA had revamped Malta's image in a cohesive way through restructuring from a top-heavy structure and by bringing in new work practices and accountability.

As a result of this restructuring, the money spent on advertising and promotion had gone up from 60 per cent in 2004 to an estimated 72 per cent this year.

The MTA had also moved away from geographic-focused markets to segment-focused markets. Apart from this, people had been appointed as aggressive market hunters to go to every country that had the potential of enticing business to their segment.

So, equipped with these changes, was the target of 70,000 extra tourists over the next two years realistic?

"I will continue to strive for the optimum target. Prospects for the rest of the year according to the World Tourism Organisation are that Europe is forecast to grow by three per cent," he said.

"Provided we deliver, we'll get our fair market share, so let's not panic. Let's fight the competition and not divide and rule, because of personal agendas. This is too important at a national level. Let us pull the same rope in the same direction, since Malta cannot benefit from the same economies of scale as bigger countries."

"The competition will first favour a mass tourism destination, which is increasing beds and resorts. Labour costs are low, the infrastructure and food is cheaper and they can carry a lot more people.

"Tour operators are telling us that Malta was becoming more difficult to sell. Because of all the factors I mentioned, Malta cannot be cheap."

Asked for an explanation on why a "big name operator" was pulling out, Mr Lungaro-Mifsud said it was still negotiating with this key player to stay on and it was irresponsible for these matters to be aired in public until the matter was concluded.