Tourist arrivals

I was quite amused to read a recent letter in The Times (March 6).

The author of the letter, Winston V. Zahra, takes the Minister of Tourism to task because the Minister deemed it fit to make public that tourist arrival figures were up by 2.5 per cent as compared to the same month last year. Mr Zahra thereby also suggested a way in which comparisons should be carried out to ascertain that one was on the right track.

If I am not mistaken, Mr Zahra has his roots in the hotel business.

As he seems to be somewhat pre-occupied with regard to tourist arrival figures, I would like to ask Mr Zahra, why Maltese hoteliers are never present with special offers at regional travel fairs in Germany, as is the custom of hoteliers from Malta's competitors in the tourist industry.

Mr Zahra, as well as the MHRA, may wish to know that, very recently, at the regional travel fair in Munich, a Maltese hotel group with international holdings had a separate counter on the plot assigned to Turkey at the fair. If Mr Zahra, and the MHRA, are ever so keen to criticise and grumble, is it not surprising that the same Maltese hotel group did not strive for its own counter at the Malta stand at the same fair in Munich? Do Maltese businessmen such as Mr Zahra, who are operative in the tourist industry, believe that their tourist manna will just come, if the same businessmen only visit the ITB, which is presently being held in Berlin?

Mr Zahra may also wish to know that I bought a voucher in Germany for a four-star hotel in Malta. I was there at the beginning of December. In the four-star hotel, there was no table service at break-fast-time and hotel guests were not even asked whether they wished a pot of coffee or a pot of tea. A badly functioning automatic machine was the only help.

I sometimes meet German citizens, whose Malta experience had not been so wonderful. It is this group of disillusioned persons, who unfortunately trigger off a negative rebound phenomenon with a possible negative snowball effect for Malta's tourism industry.

I am convinced that it is quite easy for Mr Zahra, for the MHRA and for the many auto-didactic tourism experts, who write so often in Malta's papers, to put all blame on the Minister of Tourism (regardless of political colour) and on the MTA.

Mr Zahra and the MHRA should in first instance sweep in front of their own doors and in addition get valid advice with regard to the wishes and movements of holidaymakers on mainland Europe.