Celebrating diversity

Since 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation has celebrated World Tourism Day on September 27 to raise awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide.

In a globalised world, where tourism destinations increasingly offer a standardised product and service, the discerning visitor is constantly in search of tourism experiences which offer diversity.

Malta manifests its diversity in a variety of ways: First is the island's historical and cultural offer, which presents 7,000 years of different cultural influences all hailing from the Mare Nostrum, 'our' Mediterranean.

This can be further appreciated by visitors due to the size of the country, as a result of which a tourist may experience the wide spectrum of places and events normally associated with a much larger country. Our diversity has enabled us to create niches such as diving, conferences and incentives, learning English as a foreign language, culture and sports, to increase Malta's attractiveness as a tourism destination.

We need to work harder, however, to enable our tourists to discover the beauty, authenticity and rich history of villages such as Siggiewi, Qormi, Zebbug, Lija and others. The full potential of Grand Harbour and our fortifications is still to be realised. Public-private partnerships that bring out this potential need to be further explored and encouraged.

A diverse tourism product offer is a useful tool to combat the effects of seasonality, which is very detrimental to the professional development of tourism worldwide.

The diversity offered by our three distinct islands is another positive factor that we should seek to exploit further by marketing and highlighting their individual unique selling propositions.

Besides the direct economic benefits of tourism, one must also appreciate the benefits brought about through the interaction of different peoples and cultures which tourism engenders. Such interaction assists people in different countries to understand and appreciate different values, cultures and traditions.

This year's World Tourism Day is being celebrated at a time when global tourism is passing through a difficult phase. Following two record years of growth, Malta has this year also suffered a shortfall in tourism performance. The World Travel and Tourism Council has predicted there will be 10 million fewer tourists in the Mediterranean, which will experience an estimated 10% drop in arrivals this year.

In the face of such a situation there is no room for complacency. The government and industry stakeholders must keep working together and harder than ever to ride through this period with the least possible damage.

Retaining airline seat capacity to 2008 summer levels, despite the turbulent time currently faced by the airline industry, was no mean feat. The MTA has embarked upon its most aggressive marketing campaign ever in our core and secondary markets.

Government has launched throughout the year a series of initiatives to enhance our product and support tourism operators. These include a €10m grant scheme for tourism operators towards the co-financing of sustainable tourism projects, a scheme to subsidise interest on loans raised to upgrade hotels, and a fund to assist the industry carry out marketing initiatives.

We also introduced funds for local councils and sporting organisations to assist them create events and bring international tournaments and training camps to Malta. The fund towards sports activities alone generated 22,000 bed-nights. As a result of a government initiative, a moratorium was granted by banks for capital payments on loans to more than 15 hotels, thereby enabling them to have better cash flows.

It is important that the industry uses this critical time to look deep inside itself and carry out the necessary restructuring, refurbishment, investment, training of personnel and embrace modern technologies, modes of operation and marketing methodologies.

It is encouraging to see that this year Malta was voted as the UK's top diving destination in the Mediterranean, and that Trip Advisor ranked Malta in the top four Mediterranean islands, and top 10 southern European hot spots.

Although growth has not yet returned, international forecasts all point to the slow emergence of the global economy from recession, which will eventually translate itself in increased numbers of international travellers.

The success of the tourism industry depends on each individual's contribution, and not only those directly involved in the sector.

With the efforts of all concerned it will weather the storm and be in a position to continue achieving the positive results it has yielded thus far.

Dr de Marco is the Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism.