Tourism - the way forward

There is no doubt that the tourism industry, this year, has shown signs of recovery with hotels in summer achieving very good occupancy levels and as a result good returns on their investment.

This is excellent news for all players within the industry as well as all those who benefit from the huge multiplier effect that tourism has on the Maltese economy. The year started at a rather slow pace but it gained momentum as the months went by thus ensuring a good year for all. It is important that this trend continues and for this to happen we need to look back and examine why the industry found itself in such difficulties over the past three years. It is important to do such an exercise as I feel that the problems we had within the industry were mostly self inflicted and could have been avoided. Voices were loud and clear pointing out our weaknesses as well as giving solutions, but unfortunately there was lack of action to correct the path of disaster. Fortunately when it was nearly too late, advice was heeded, action started to be taken and things began to change for the better.

Maybe the biggest mistake we made was to appoint people on the MTA board who were not the right people to head this industry. This led to turmoil within the MTA itself with people, lacking leadership and knowledge of the industry, taking extremely wrong decisions resulting in waste of large amounts of money, which should have been used for the promotion of our Islands.

The closing off of overseas offices without the recommended follow through of strengthening the overseas sales force, the lifeline of the industry, was another major mistake, the branding exercise which heightened local people's awareness of what we should be delivering but was stopped short of full implementation in the overseas markets, the lack of realisation of the shortage of seat capacity, the lack of realisation of the fact that the pattern of booking holidays was changing... All these were grave mistakes which must not happen again.

The MTA is now functioning and producing results under the leadership of Sam Mifsud, however it is still without a chief executive. Again here a person was chosen who had no experience at all of the industry, when there were people who were interviewed who would have filled the role. The result was that six months later the MTA ended up without a chief executive. This position is still vacant. What are we waiting for to appoint someone to this position? The proper administration of the MTA cannot function unless a CEO is in place (what with the risk of losing funding due to applications being sent late). This position will complement Mr Mifsud's excellent capabilities in marketing.

Most of the overseas markets have been re-strengthened with competent sales people, albeit with sensible savings having been made on rents previously being wasted on unnecessary prime site offices. This is an excellent decision and no doubt is helping towards the increase we are experiencing this year.

With regards to branding, again here so much time and money were devoted to what should have been a fairly simple exercise. Identify what we have to sell and where to sell it and apply our marketing accordingly. Why try to reinvent the wheel? The Maltese islands branding must be Sun, Sea, Culture and Fun! That is what the island has to offer. These are our unique selling points and our marketing must be undertaken accordingly. The many niche markets such as diving, sports, film production, cruise liner business, yachting, etc. are all within this branding. The recently signed contract with Mmedia Consulta will hopefully deliver these things in the months to come.

The lack of seat capacity was another major problem. The government had established a figure of 50,000 as a target yearly increase for incoming tourists.

But how can you increase the numbers if there are not so many seats available. After waiting for so long, eventually it was realised that the influx of low-cost airlines was needed to boost the seat capacity. Low-cost airlines started to operate to Malta and we are now seeing the results. It is imperative that we continue to aggressively market our Islands with as many low cost airlines as possible. The more airlines fly in, the more visitors come in. Air Malta will survive, as along as it continues to restructure its operations to become more cost effective.

The patterns of people booking holidays have been changing and changing fast. People are opting more and more for booking through internet, so again here we must promote our Islands with the companies who are offering this service. We have started and we are seeing results. It is important that we continue on this trend, as in a very few years' time, this will be the only way of booking holidays.

And finally we need to give more attention to our product. The construction industry's new regulations must be put into force, the building of roads must be done at a faster pace. (The St Paul's By bypass is still not finished and no work is being carried out to finish it). Cleanliness is also lacking. As an example, we have embellished seaside promenades such as Sliema and Gzira. Why do we not keep them as clean as they should be? Washing these areas once a week will do the trick. Is it so difficult? Where are the councils?

We are blessed with beautiful islands surrounded by a wonderful sea. It does not take much to make them the centre of excellence which the Prime Minister has set as a target for 2015. I think we can achieve this much earlier if we all work together and put in the efforts required to achieve this aim.

Mr Zahra is Group Managing Director of Island Hotels Group.