Brand Malta

Look closely at the above photographs. At first glance you might think they are views of the same town. Alas, they are not. Left picture shows the beautifully-maintained and "manicured" bastions of Dubrovnik, a jewel of a walled town if ever there was one. What makes this view even more amazing is the fact that this city was ravaged by war just 15 years ago. In Malta we are still waiting to reconstruct parts of Valletta damaged during World War II!

The other picture shows the weed-infested bastions of our capital city Valletta. The mind boggles. Rather than wasting so much time and energy debating what needs to be done to revive our sick tourist industry, why don't we first accept the fact that in order to succeed in such a competitive environment, our country must make a massive investment to revamp and upgrade our "product"?

On its own, Branding Malta will not bring us more and better tourists. We are desperately trying to market a product that is simply not up to scratch. No amount of pretty words can disguise the fact that Malta has become a dirty, over-rated tourist destination and only a major financial intervention will reverse this state of affairs.

Do we stand a chance of success? I doubt it but I would dearly love to be proven wrong. There seems to be a general perception that Malta has some five-star accommodation but, in the main, a two-star environment. This is no perception. It is a fact and the quicker we accept it the better. If we ever hope to attract a better quality tourist, we cannot continue on this road to nowhere.

Like all consumers, tourists make a conscious decision of where to spend their money. We are being beaten hands down by most of our Mediterranean competitors and Dubrovnik is but one example.

Now for the crunch. Bed nights in Dubrovnik in the first six months of this year show an increase of 20 per cent on 2005 and we languish in the doldrums. One recent Saturday, I personally witnessed six cruise liners anchored off Dubrovnik bringing in thousands of visitors to the city.

If we all agree that tourism is to be one of the main drivers of our economy, the government must urgently draft a master plan to provide for the upgrading and embellishment of the island's principal "jewels". The exercise will entail the expenditure of millions of liri but, once all the calculations are made, the investment will be economically sound.

It is no use complaining of low-spending tourists if our country remains in its present state. To quote an often used phrase, "with peanuts you catch monkeys". Dubrovnik is by no means inexpensive but this town, that is probably not much larger than Mdina, will this year receive 600,000 tourists and 500,000 cruise liner passengers!

We cannot realistically expect the entire island to be brought to a pristine condition but we could surely make a start with Valletta that is Malta's "crown jewel". Rather than spending silly money on Malta Houses in Brussels and elsewhere, why don't we immediately vote a sum of Lm20-30 million for the transformation of our capital? If we get it right, the Maltese will have something to be truly proud of and we shall also have something spectacular to "sell" to the tourist.

I am sure these funds would cover most if not all the cost of works that would include the paving of Valletta's main streets with flagstones (the paving used in Dubrovnik is unbelievably attractive), the rebuilding of City Gate, the rehabilitation of the "hole" that once was an opera house, the re-organisation of the Valletta bus terminus, and the cleaning and restoring of the once magnificent bastions. One of Dubrovnik's major revenue earners is the proceeds from a walk around the city's walls. Could we not have a walkway constructed around the Valletta bastions or at least a section of them?

After visiting such a beautiful city as Dubrovnik and admiring the way it has been lovingly restored and maintained (I even saw a worker making some repairs to the main street paving using a chaser attached to a vacuum cleaner!) I am not at all surprised by the state of our tourist industry. We have got what we deserve. That is the rule of the market.

Perhaps it would not be a bad idea for the Cabinet of ministers to sacrifice a day of their well-earned summer break and charter an aircraft to take them on a one-day tour of Dubrovnik to see first hand how it has been done. Unlike Brussels, it will be money well spent.