The tourism debate

I do not ever remember so much being written and so much being said about the state of the tourism industry.

The debate has left me perplexed with the lack of knowledge there seems to be, judging by what is being said by people who should know much more about what they are talking about, especially when referring to low-cost airlines.

We keep on hearing horror stories of what the results would be if low-cost carriers start operating to Malta. We keep on hearing that Air Malta would have to close down operations, tour operators will stop coming to Malta. All other airlines will stop flying to Malta and we will all be at the mercy of one big powerful low-cost airline!

The reality is far from this projected scenario.

The situation today is that the island has been static in terms of the number of visiting tourists for a number of years. The last 10 years have seen no growth at all, with figures hovering between 1.1 and 1.2 million tourists and bed nights below the figure of 10 million. The island needs to achieve 1.5 million tourists with an average stay of 10 nights or any other combination that will lead to a production of 15 million bed nights.

Our main objective has to be twofold:

¤ To retain the existing source of tourist arrivals and, at the same time, aim at growth of these source markets.

¤ To induce other operations to boost figures.

And this is where low-cost airlines come in. Low-cost airlines have established themselves as a new way to travel both for business and leisure. By being very proactive and innovative, low-cost airlines have exploited the internet to offer their products and they have been successful in showing exceptional growths year on year over the last few years. Their growth is reflected in the tourist arrivals in those destinations to where they operate. If we are clever enough, we can use these airline to our advantage by bridging (over a period of time) the difference in the figures we have been used to over the last 10 years and those we all wish for.

So where do we go from here? Again, as I stated in a previous article, we need to have a serious plan whereby we ensure we look after the tour operators, the airlines and other operators that have been supporting us all for the past 40 years and, at the same time, we make it feasible for the main low-cost airlines to commence operations by offering volume-based incentives. Such incentives can also be made available to any other airline that provides volume to the island, including our national airline.

I do not feel the commencement of low-cost airlines will have a negative effect on either Air Malta or tour operators. In fact, more competition (if you can call it competition, because low-cost airline operations are completely different to those we are used to) will make Air Malta stronger as it will need to become more efficient.

In the case of tour operators, low-cost airlines will provide them with other opportunities of air travel that will render their product more competitive.

Incidentally, BritishJet is a low-cost airline which has been operating for some time. It does not seem that it had any effect on Air Malta or the tour operators. On the other hand, BritishJet is bringing over 70,000 passengers to Malta (quoting Robbie Borg) through its network of flights and publicity of the island.

If the tourism industry is to move forward we must go along this route, planning every move in great detail to ensure we only get what is positive and eliminate anything negative.

Finally, let us not be afraid of change. We must not forget that in business you cannot stand still. You either go forward or backward. At the moment we are going backwards. We have this opportunity to reverse the trend. Let's go for it!

Mr Zahra is group managing director of Island Hotels Group, Malta.