Not the sights we want tourists to see (1)

"Malta sightseeing tour, hop on, hop off." First of all, congratulations for this initiative! Taking advantage of the school holidays, my friend and I took our children of five on the North Route Tour. The children loved it. And we did too!

But I have some remarks to make...

I have lived on Gozo for the last six years, so I know that Gozo and Malta have very nice places to visit. What we saw from high up on the open bus, however, is shameful and surely not recommendable to any tourist! It was as if we were driving around in an area which was just recovering from a major war. We saw so many empty, dilapidated houses, so much building rubbish, so much dirt...and on top of that, so many cranes and apartment blocks still in shell form... and I won't even go into the bad condition of the roads.

Is that what we have to show to the tourists? The bus was full and the comments were the same. Malta gives one the sad impression of a very dirty environment.

Luckily the last part of the tour, between Mdina and Buġibba, made up for that sad impression - we enjoyed a beautiful countryside.

The idea for this project is very good but I appeal for a change of routes to show the tourists the nicer parts of Malta. I urge the authorities to make sure that the contractors and the owners of all these empty buildings which are falling apart, clean up the mess. Or else, they should be made to pay heavy fines. Also, those who want to restore their buildings in the old traditional Maltese way should be encouraged and subsidised.

For the sake of the tourism industry this is not the way to promote Malta. I wish those who run the open-top buses success in the future. They will need it!