Since I was appointed Labour Party spokesman on tourism nearly two years ago I have regularly been pointing out that we do not have a national strategic plan for tourism. All our competitors have their strategic plans. More important than simply having them, they are mobilising their human and financial resources to implement their national strategic plans to give their tourism a future.

Over the last two years, Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech has tried to brush off this criticism by pretending that Government already has such a plan and is already on the way to implement it. The minister often talked about "our strategy" and "our plan". Then a year ago I asked him point blank: "What document would you be able to give me if I ask you for a copy of your national strategic plan for tourism?"

He was unusually silent. Such a document did not exist a year ago and it still does not exist. Government does not have a strategic plan of action to revive tourism. The prime minister's stated intention in November 2004 of bringing an additional 150,000 tourists between 2005 and 2007 at best was wishful thinking and certainly had no strategic action plan underpinning it.

Instead of drawing up such an action plan, Government has spent the last two years trying to deceive everybody by giving the impression that it had such a strategic plan. According to the Implementation Report for the restructuring of the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) of February 8, 2005, the main targets for a three-year tourism plan were to be identified between July 15 and November 30, 2005. This crucial part of the restructuring process has fallen behind schedule. The national strategic tourism plan has still to be drawn up.

The MTA review drawn up by Deloitte rightly points out as Key Issue No. 1: "MTA has produced a number of strategic plans, which have delivered little focused action and poor results."

The proposed solution is "An integrated tourism planning approach with strong private sector input and a strategy that contains specific, measurable, attainable, realistic targets and action plans (supported by timeframes and budgets) which have designated ownership for each task."

Government must not abdicate its responsibility and hide behind the MTA. Launching the Blueprint for New Tourism, less than two years ago, the President of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Jean-Claude Baumgarten said: "There is now a new consciousness amongst governments that they cannot leave the growth of travel and tourism to chance. What is needed is a new vision and strategy involving a partnership between all stakeholders - public and private to turn future challenges into opportunities."

No quick fixes

Government must take the initiative to drive the wide and deep consultative process with all the stakeholders to formulate a strategic plan for tourism, which all the country will own. We can only succeed if we have a whole government and whole country approach and a really national effort to make our tourism survive and thrive.

Government must not take the back seat and conveniently delegate its political responsibility to the MTA for such a strategic tourism action plan. The private sector has been investing quite a lot of money over the years to improve its product and service. Government has fallen behind in this area and has allowed the country to become shabby and mediocre. As a result other countries are beating us in the fierce competition to attract tourists.

The Deloitte MTA Review report states: "The Product Improvement Action Plan would consider issues such as the shabbiness of Malta, heritage sites, beaches, local transportation and a host of other issues which affect tourism, but do not fall under the remit of MTA or the Ministry of Tourism and where Government is called upon by the private sector to adopt a more pro-active role. To succeed, the Product Improvement Plan must be specific and identify realistic target dates for the achievement of each objective and shall clearly delegate specific Ministerial responsibility for each phase of initiative."

Government is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of tourism. The Deloitte review stresses that "Notwithstanding the current financial limitations Government must look at the implementation of a Product Improvement Action Plan as a national priority investment and should be prepared to make an immediate and significant 'catch-up' investment which will bring 'Product Malta' up to scratch. Government should consider ways of using additional revenue from tourism growth as a means of financing this initial investment and ongoing annual investment. If tourism does not achieve its growth potential then Malta will have a serious national economic problem."

The Labour Party's document on how to give tourism a new beginning stresses the importance of a strategy for tourism. A lot of words have been said about this over the years. We need specific action. Sensible people in tourism believe that we need a national tourism strategy which is supported across both parties in the same way as had been done in the case of financial services. They are convinced that this is fundamental and is the only way that tourism can really grow.

Leadership with vision

Of course, drawing up such a strategy will not be easy. Our industry is very fragmented and very few operators have the ability and vision to see the big picture. Many operators simply want to protect their patch. This is where political leadership with vision and commitment has to come in.

A keen researcher of the local tourism industry told me: "One of the key roles of a successful Tourism Minister is undoubtedly to listen to the views of all the sectors and then to filter out and decide what is in the national interest as opposed to the particular sectoral interest. In this, Labour was previously successful and the trade felt they had a Minister who was approachable and who understood their issues and facilitated a solution across Government and public entities."

The Labour Party is committed to support tourism as a whole government and to revive it and give it a new beginning. There is no quick-fix solution. We can only hope for steady improvements. But if we want these improvements our industry is going to have to become more focused and more holistic in its approach.

The need for a national tourism strategy setting the vision for the next decade is a top priority. This strategy must strive to accommodate everyone but should state clearly where we want to be and should provide guidelines of how we should seek to manage the transitional period.

The strategy cannot meet the expectations of all the players in our fragmented tourism industry. It must prioritise and differentiate between key and secondary objectives and priorities. Once Government (hopefully with the support of both sides of Parliaments) approve this strategy document, all the public and private players (including MTA) will 'dance to the same tune!

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