Updating tourism product

Mario de Marco's March 4 reply to my article Dispelling Myths (February 25) was to be expected. Rather than facing the truth and increasing the efforts to improve our tourism offer, the Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism opted to launch an attack on what he conveniently termed as baffling statements on my part.

Talk about not seeing the wood for the trees! Of course 2008 was a record year for tourism; my remarks regarding the reversal of trends in December (and unfortunately, since also confirmed for January and February) were meant just to convey the opposite, and what several constituted bodies have been warning since last August, namely that we were facing some tough times.

Similarly my comments with regard to the the LCCs - how many of the original LCCs are left? How many skimmed the cream of our generous offers and have now called it a day? Wouldn't it have been better to spread the risks?

But what really takes the cake is Dr de Marco's denial regarding the product. How convenient to refer to the awards won by two of our hotels and the diving industry - as if these were ever in question! As if I ever referred to our product as being so narrowly defined! What about the messages that MHRA keeps sending to the government regarding the improvement of the product? Our roads, general cleanliness, pavements - the list is unfortunately too long. Of course the whole world is facing tough times; it would definitely help if we were at least to have a really up-to-date product.

One of last week's and yesterday's leader in The Times also makes this point, perhaps more subtly - we need to move from platitudes to honest admissions of mistaken policies. How about that for a change, Dr de Marco?