Tourism winter blues

The tourism industry worldwide is being hit by two major turbulences. The first is, of course, the recession that is hitting the economies of Europe and beyond. The second is the tornado that has ripped apart the airline industry.

The World Tourism Organisation, taking account of the economic situation, revised downwards its predictions for this year's tourism performance. Tourism worldwide this year is now expected to grow by around two per cent. Had the economic situation not taken a turn for the worse, this growth would have been a much healthier five per cent. Moreover, as the current trouble economic scenario is expected to continue into next year, the WTO's forecast for next year is a growth of between zero and two per cent.

Our tourism industry cannot escape this winter of discontent. We cannot realistically expect to turn away the dark clouds. However, we can, indeed we are, ensuring that we ride this storm with minimum losses. By we I mean the government and the private sector working together. The line of communication between the government and the private sector remains as strong now as it has been throughout the past months. This open channel of communication is being used to keep under close review the developments in our source markets and to help determine our response.

Our main objectives are twofold: firstly, Malta must remain accessible; and, secondly, we need to ensure that our voice is heard where it matters most.

Over the past two years we have made Malta more accessible. The benefit of this strategy was felt immediately. We increased the number of arrivals, the number of bed nights and tourism earnings. Equally important we have made our tourism mix richer and more robust. This winter will see us lose some of the new routes, mainly as a result of airlines cutting down routes and shrinking their schedules. To counter act this reduction, Malta Tourism Authority and Malta International Airport officials entered into negotiations with airlines to open up new routes. The government has also issued a call for airlines interested in operating from UK regional airports.

Our efforts are already yielding results. SAS will start twice-weekly flights to Malta from March next year. New routes and increased frequencies, especially from destinations that have high load factors, can provide quick returns. These returns will not be achieved at the expense of undermining the long-term operations of the legacy carriers, low-cost carriers and tour operators that service Malta.

We are also increasing our advertising efforts in those destinations from where we have airlines seats available. The additional budget afforded to MTA in this year's budget will provide us with the necessary fuel needed to go that extra mile. I am confident that if we manage to push up the load factors on existing routes than we will manage a credible winter performance. We will be working with airlines, not least Air Malta, to identify those markets that will benefit most from additional advertising.

In the meantime, we will continue with our efforts to improve our tourism product. During next year, we will be launching a number of EU-funded projects. These projects, together with government-funded initiatives, will provide for a better visitor experience. While a lot has been done in the past years, both by the government and the private sector, I strongly believe that we are but scratching the surface of the product potential. Much of our wealth still needs to be brought out, polished and displayed. I have no doubt that, eventually, this wealth will become our best and most cost effective advertising.

Ultimately, however, there is one determining factor that in today's circumstances is critical to riding through this winter's storm. We need to offer our potential tourists good value for money. It is a shared responsibility among the government, the trade and the private sector alike. By this I do not mean the cheapest package but the best cost-benefit package possible. It is the best possible competitive edge that we can have over other competing destinations in these arduous times.

Just as together we have turned the industry around so can we together steer the industry in these troubled times. With determination, level headedness and the right actions we can certainly hold our own and prepare ourselves for eventual better times ahead.

Dr de Marco is Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism.