That sinking feeling

Those whose future depends on the success of our tourist industry have never felt so abandoned by this government that seems to have abdicated its responsibilities to ensure that this industry prospers. The victims of the present government neglect of the tourism industry are not just the thousands of entrepreneurs who have invested money in various ventures but also the army of workers who are directly or indirectly employed in this industry.

What is particularly sad is that most people know what is wrong with our management of tourism and yet the minister responsible for this vital economic sector and indeed the whole Cabinet seem impotent to take those decisions that could stop the rot. One only has to read the daily newspapers, or surf one of the websites where visitors to Malta comment on their experience among us to come up with a list of priorities that should then be translated into an action plan for improving our performance.

And yet the government is more interested in resorting to empty rhetoric about branding while ignoring the real issues that need to be tackled if we are to persuade old and new visitors to come back to Malta. But even this partial initiative has been bungled by the Malta Tourism Authority.

They have wasted millions of liri advertising in the wrong media, partly as a result of rushing into a branding exercise without first defining a strategic plan and supporting tactics agreed with the main stakeholders. But our Minister of Tourism and the MTA have become experts at putting the cart before the horse.

I need not elaborate too much on this because experienced professionals who know the dynamics of our tourist industry much better than the minister and the MTA have already explained in the most lucid and simple way why our latest advertising campaign has been wrongly conceived and even more wrongly executed.

However, more important issues, like the quality of our infrastructure, for example the crumbling road network, the insensitivity to basic tourist needs, for example avoiding construction work in tourist areas in summer, and the need to eliminate the sheer shabbiness and dirt that is plaguing our island, continue to remain unaddressed. We do not need rocket scientists to get things right. All we need is the political will and the management ability to plan well, and then act decisively and rapidly to rectify the serious weaknesses that are rapidly destroying the future prospects of this industry.

After almost 20 years in power, this administration has become atrophied, dysfunctional, arrogant, and incapable of even empathising with those who no longer see a future for themselves and their families in our country. We have a government whose sole intent seems to be to satisfy the Maastricht criteria, by selling the country's silver, so that in a few months time it can once again patronise us by telling us how lucky we all are to be part of euroland.

A new alliance of people of goodwill is needed to reverse this trend as soon as a new government is voted into power, hopefully in a few months time. A Labour government will galvanise the energy of those stakeholders who today are being ignored. They know what is wrong with our product, and they are prepared to do their part to bring about the change needed to give our industry new buoyancy.

No doubt this moribund administration will sooner or later announce some half-baked measures to try and remedy for their past neglect. They now need to clutch at any straw to try and survive. But our tourism industry is sinking and only a major salvage operation can rescue it from this cruel fate.

Labour will lead from the front, provide the resources needed, and remove the obstacles for private entrepreneurs to instil new life in our industry. Frustration and despair about the future will give place to new hope because the solutions are feasible and can be achieved with everyone's effort.

We will face the challenge with courage and enthusiasm because for the past years we have remained close to those who are living the problems of our tourism industry from day to day.

Dr Mangion is deputy leader, parliamentary affairs, of the Malta Labour Party.