Tourism realities

Much has been said about the decline of the tourism industry. While it is accepted that hotel properties, like other products, have a shelf life, the exorbitant taxes and other expenses inflicted on these establishments from every angle has made the return on these investments extremely poor.

Over the years this has discouraged new investment from taking the place of the expired properties. The result is that many of these properties will soon be replaced by more blocks of empty apartments. The "human" question is, what is being done to replace the full- and part-time jobs lost in this industry?

Some years ago it was announced that we wanted tourism to go up market and that we did not want the "bucket and spade brigade" sector anymore. We can now confirm that this sector of the market has got the message and has taken its business elsewhere - "bucket and spade" tourists now frequent one of the hundreds of other destinations available to them.

The problem here is that no other sector has replaced them. Even the up-market tourist that we wished for has stayed away.

This coming winter, we should have a good look around Bugibba, which was built with the wealth created from this particular sector of the tourist market, and view the result of this policy. Last January during an MHRA meeting, some of us stood up to be counted and predicted that this year was going to be a "wash out" for some and a "wipe out" for others. We can regretfully confirm that this prediction was spot on, although our administrators ridiculed it and tried to infer that the booking situation would not be as bad as predicted, even contradicting the booking statistics obtained from the world renowned statisticians AG Neilson.

It was a pity that at the time, some of us were labelled "politically motivated". Instead, the facts should have been accepted and the situation addressed with an appropriate advertising campaign aimed at the right sector of the tourist market.

The response from our administrators was to appear on TV to do their best to contradict the downward trend and push on with the now infamous re-branding of Malta and CCN advert hype.

Some imagine that as soon as the low-cost airlines start operating to Malta, our problems will be solved. In fact, as seen in other destinations, another three years will be needed before we begin to see a positive effect from these seat sales. Initially, one will find that a good percentage of these seats are booked by people who were already planning to come to Malta anyway on other airlines but found a cheaper alternative.

Following the statements by the chairman of Air Malta, I suggest that it would be more appropriate if the national airline now accepted that they are in business to compete, and that price has now become the main factor. With all due respect, we all live and work in a very price-conscious and competitive world, and the days of monopolies are over. I realise this will upset all those who are blessed with free upgrades and other freebies when travelling with our national airline, but this animal has been obese for far too long and is due for a crash diet if it wants to survive and compete in the real world.

Like many other hoteliers, I have had enough listening to the silly excuses from senior politicians who should know better than to state that the decline in tourism here this year is caused by fierce competition from other resorts.

The question is, was there ever a year in the history of tourism when we did not face serious competition from our competitors, including new destinations? One thing that is never mentioned is that competing resorts require millions of tourists a year compared to the small numbers needed by Malta to make up a decent year of arrivals.