Maltese tourism among worst hit in EU

W Spencer

Jul 16th 2009, 13:10

@ Peter Lawton

C'mon let us into the secret where these 'cheap' items can be obtained, or are you telling 'porkies' ? Special offers at St Julians, St Pauls, or Qwara perhaps ? We live here, and pay more than the prices you quote.

The truth is, its not the fact that Malta is more expensive than so many other places. Its the fact that Malta has lost its way regarding ' customer service '. Also compare the immaculate beaches / streets in Benidorm, Fuerteventura, etc, with Malta and there is no comparison.

Even if Malta is advertised as a tourist resort in other Countries. on arrival and during their holiday, the new tourists will be of the same opinion as the present complainers.

Brucie Debono(Sydney-Aus).

Jul 15th 2009, 11:54

Well Mr.P.Lawton you must be one of the lucky once, tell me sunshine where are these so called cheapies, cause we are Maltese Australians, and we certianly dont' find Malta particularly value for Malta, unless you tend to go to some grotty little corner shop, one only gets what one pays for, and we didn't come all this way lower our standrads G'day my British friend have a nice time.

Peter Lawton

Jul 14th 2009, 21:26

Here we go again, its all lets knock Malta time. I am a regular visitor to Malta and have commented on many issues via The Times website, ie, transport, rubbish, service etc. But to say Malta is expensive you must be having a joke. I was last in Malta from june 6th, I could get a pint of beer for 1 euro, a bottle of decent wine for 4 euro, and a nice meal for 6 euro. I have booked again for three weeks in january at a cost of £ 369 sterling, its as cheap as staying at home. And the flight is scheduled flight with Air Malta.

Alexander Morana

Jul 14th 2009, 19:32

Hey you all, Gonzi wants it this way so he can raise your taxes to balance the deficit by 2010!!!!!

Chrissey Zammit

Jul 14th 2009, 17:57

NOW !!! lets hope the goverment will listen. Malta needs to be cleaned up, Litter everywhere, Demolition everywhere, Immigrants everywhere to name a few. Restaurants charging above average prices ( and getting away with it).
Why do the Goverment allow beautiful buildings to be knocked down, and replaced with blocks of flats. Once planning permission is given, there should be a time limit put on the building being completed, in Malta this can go on for years. WAKE up and get Malta sorted, before the Island goes BUST !!!!!!

Andrea Portelli

Jul 14th 2009, 15:59

I'm barely surprised by this announcement.

The skyline is dominated by ugly cranes all year round, illegal immigrants running around everywhere does not help either. Not to mention that week-long transport strike which had occurred somewhere around this time a year ago which I am sure gave Europeans a bad impression of Malta.

Nigel Lawrence

Jul 14th 2009, 15:01

The Maltese should ask themselves- "If I was a foreigner, would I come here". If they were honest with themselves they would be embarrassed by their own answer.

Michael Baldry

Jul 14th 2009, 14:45

I am afraid next year will be worse unless the MTA starts to target new markets away from the traditional UK. The simple fact is once Malta adopted the euro The UK market was doomed. This made things 25-30% more expensive for Brits and in the last year prices in restaurants for boat trips, museums etc have increased by another 15% making a 40% increase in a couple of years. Yes I know this is the fault of the stubborn UK for not joing the Euro but this is the situation facing Malta which will not change in the next few years. The only solution is to target other Euro countries and make the Malta Tourism product better!

John Montague

Jul 14th 2009, 14:44

The cracks are getting wider. Arrivals are down. Hotel revenues are down. VAT collection is down.

The problem is worsening and this is only the beginning......

Meaningful strategies all round please!!!

Roy anslow

Jul 14th 2009, 14:08

I have written to the Malta Tourist Authority re Air Malta prices as relatives from the u.k have tried to book flights that are far too expensive and if you go on Air Malta web site prices can rise overnight by euro100, also 4 weeks ago the price for 2 persons return from Birmingham rose from £268 to £470 surely this cannot be justified, also there are times when you search and you notice a good price if you fly out 2 days prior but as soon as you click on it the price alters.

G Vassallo

Jul 14th 2009, 12:57

Am I suppose to be surprised with this? Malta is now toooooooo expensive!!! Why do people from other countries want to visit us while it's more expensive than the U K and other E U countries. It's crazy if you need to buy anything from Malta cause it's twice as much the average costs in Europe. An Irish friend of mine told me last year that he'll never ever come to Malta again as it's more expensive than Ireland. It's a shame that our government has put us in this situation as we will lose our country in years to come.

Isobel Mcgonigle

Jul 14th 2009, 12:56

A friend of mine wanted to come to Malta,last October,for one week,flight only from Manchester,the price she was quoted ,she got 2 weeks all inclusive,in Sri Lanka,for less than a flight only to Malta,
Speak to the tourists here now,they are all complaining about the high prices in Malta,and vowing never to return,
With tourism Malta's main source of income,the final nail in the coffin,will soon be in place

Charles Micallef

Jul 14th 2009, 12:09

Question,

How many tourist have not returned because they were woken up at 6am by Building Works and excavations next door to their hotel in the middle of summer?

How many of them have not returned because they cannot walk our streets without being harassed on numerous occasions by timeshare touts?

Answers please?

C A Camilleri

Jul 14th 2009, 11:47

In France, specifically at Marne la Vallée near Eurodisney, they reduced the VAT at restaurants. The menu has the old prices quoted with the new adjusted price next to each item on the menu. Malta of course is a different story. We are riding the wave!

Moira Heath

Jul 14th 2009, 11:46

I will reiterate what Steven Vella said, just to make it louder. Malta has a very very long way to go before it can become competitive with other destinations. No amount of money spent on advertising will change the fact that some of our tourists return home to tell the story of what a filthy, polluted island this is, how rude the maltese can be, how much they were ripped off, and if they dare make their voice heard via polite criticism in the shape of letters to our newspapers, let the poison from our keyboards flow cause we're "proud to be maltese", yet we do nothing but rape our own country. There are plenty of good things about Malta but it's the bad experiences that tourists will remember the most.

M Mealclaff

Jul 14th 2009, 11:34

The photograph above seems to sum up why tourists are not coming to Malta as much.

In the photo One sees a beach full of Sun Beds,,,The sand can hardly bee seen at all.
Who wants to go to a beach full of sun beds with the only view is one of even more sun beds.

The is a Pathetic Palm tree which seems to be Dead.

Across the sea..One can see a huge and ugly development.

Apart from this Malta is very Shabby...Bugibba Square is full of millions of cigarette butts.
Malta is extremely Expensive for food, drinks, ice cream etc.

It seems the party is over.

Robert Zammit

Jul 14th 2009, 10:58

I'm not surprised in the least !! Malta is one of the most expensive places to fly to thanks to Air Malta who insist on keeping their prices high !! From France it is one of the most expensive destinations, friends of mine who were thinking of coming over this summer are going elsewhere cos of the air ticket cost, as it's cheaper to fly elsewhere and have the money saved to spend on oneself on holiday. Flying to Malta is practically twice the cost of flying to St Petersburg from Paris, and one can get weekends and 1 week stays in Tunisia, morocco, italy, etc for half the price, and most of it is because of the high cost of flights !!
Let a low cost airline start flying from france and you'll see numbers double in a year or two.

Steven Vella

Jul 14th 2009, 10:19

Is it any wonder? Malta is expensive compared to competing destinations, and worse still, Malta is also very very shabby (the public transport system is a mess; the concept of good customer service is almost inexistent; and the environment resembles a huge rundown construction site in Somalia). You get what you sow.