Editorial

When one considers the physical development that has taken place in so many places all over the island over the past few years, it is astonishing to see how the authorities still do not find it important, or important enough, to revamp what is by all accounts one of the shabbiest places in Malta - the entrance to Valletta.

Quite a number of roundabouts are today being manicured, giving the localities a fresh look, a clean and attractive ambience so different to the miserable state in which they were kept for so many years. New roads and the rebuilding of the boundary walls that go with them have also taken some parts of the island into the new age. There are so many others that require the same treatment, but at least the country is now moving forward - at a painfully slow pace, but forward nonetheless.

Tangible physical development and improvement have turned other places into attractions. One that comes readily to mind is the Valletta Waterfront, a wonderful project that has already given Grand Harbour a new lease of life. All such development is helping to improve the tourist product. Yet, the entrance to the capital has been allowed to deteriorate even further. In an interview with this newspaper, Josef Formosa Gauci, president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, summed up the problem with tourism over the past three years as poor marketing, poor product and lack of seating capacity. With regard to the first, he said that with a new chairman and board, and changes in the marketing department, the Malta Tourism Authority was now more focused. Which has been taken to mean the authority is now on the right track.

The introduction of low-cost airlines was a step in the right direction, but the government was still proceeding too slowly on providing assistance for the introduction of more low-cost routes. So, those who had for years been in favour of low-cost airlines were right after all, and according to the association's president, their entry into the scene had had little or no effect on the national carrier.

The Malta International Airport's CEO, Peter Boloch, has his doubts as to whether low-cost airlines are the solution to problems facing tourism in Malta.

Air Malta, shackled for so many years by political decisions that bloated its workforce to a level well beyond its needs, is shaping up to meet the new challenges. This is the way to go. The hallmark has to be efficiency, not political patronage.

Greater attention would now need to be given to improving the quality of the product, not just by the government but by the hoteliers and restaurateurs as well.

Insofar as Valletta is concerned, what would immediately make a difference is an extensive facelift to the entrance, one of the first places where tourists congregate before going into the city.

Even if no money can immediately be found to rehabilitate the place physically, the least that can be done is to clean up the whole area, remove the taxis and the kiosks away from the immediate vicinity of the gate, keep the fountain in good working order and decorate the sides of the entrance with plants, lots of plants, to hide the sheer hideousness of the gate and its environs.

This would at least help remove the bad image the tourists get of Valletta before they even start their city tour. Surely this should not prove a fraction as difficult as successive administrations have been finding it to address the opera house issue!