Austin bans budget tourists

If Austin Gatt is anyone’s darling, he’s the darling of the non-politically correct crowd. He is admired by people who confuse arrogance with toughness, rudeness with straight-talking, and bulldozer tactics with a no-nonsense attitude. In Gatt, they see a Maltese version of Californian Governor Arnold Swarzenegger – a macho politician minus the muscles.

The Gatt groupies were out in full force when he uttered his latest clanger. This came in the wake of the minister being on the receiving end of criticism about the discriminatory nature of higher bus fares for tourists.

The rationale underlying the criticism was not so much that the tourist fares were horrendously higher than that for residents, but that they were discriminatory, perpetuating the ‘us’ and ‘them’ attitude so prevalent in our attitudes towards tourists.

It’s not as if Gatt could be bothered with the objections. He brushed aside Simon Busuttil’s reference to a case where differential museum fees for residents and non-residents was found to be discriminatory.

Presumably Gatt will have ridden off into the sunset, leaving his successors to deal with any legal challenges that may arise because of the bus fares. Despite not giving a hoot about well-substantiated objections, the minister could not pass up the temptation to give another push to the ‘Brand Malta’ effort.

During a press conference, Gatt told tourists – the non-five-star ones that is – where to get off: “If a tourist can’t afford to pay the €12 to use the bus system, he or she should do us a blessed favour and not come here at all.” Even coming from the notoriously undiplomatic Gatt, such a statement grates. That’s because there’s a world of difference towards targeting high-spending tourists and telling budget tourists to stay away.

Of course, Gatt’s admirers will say that it was an off-the-cuff remark which is essentially truthful. After all, we’d prefer the big spenders who pump money into the economy over those who live on a diet of pastizzi, pizza and beer and are a strain on our resources.

So what is wrong with stating the obvious? It’s hardly going to scare off tourists who can’t scrape €12 together – they probably wouldn’t be here in the first place. People who are in dire financial straits do not need a Maltese minister telling them to stay put and to save the pennies – they would be doing it anyway.

The minister’s comments are objectionable because they betray a deeply ingrained attitude towards tourists and those who we provide services to. Shorn of the public relations puffery, we regard them purely as cash cows. In our eyes their worth diminishes if they are not all spectacularly high-yield cows.

Now let’s make a realistic assessment of the situation. Malta has its charm. It can boast several cultural attractions and entertainment venues and is relatively safe. The mild weather is another draw. It’s easy to get around and the fact that practically everybody speaksEnglish and perhaps a smattering of Italian helps visitors make themselves understood. So there are quite a few points on the plus side of the ledger. So there’s no sense of inferiority here. It is a place worth visiting.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It is not an utterly fabulous place which is a magnet for the jet set, though that’s what we aspire to be. The potholed roads, the never-ending construction, the traffic, the dirt, the noise and the fact that there are only a few establishments which offer seamless service are its limiting factors.

You may have Gatt-like delusions of grandeur but you have to admit that the country is not five-star material across the board, though there may well be pockets of superior service. We may not be the Primark of the tourism world, but we’re not exactly Prada either.

Outpricing ourselves isn’t going to help us out of the tourism doldrums. Cheap and cheerful does it until we upgrade the level of service on offer. Because let’s face it, service in most places is indifferent at best or even hostile. I wouldn’t know which restaurants Gatt favours. Maybe he’s holed up in those offering silver service and gorging on pheasant and caviar in which case it may have escaped his notice that the vast majority of restaurants serve up an imaginative combo of tired pasta dishes and overloaded pizzas, that they’re either understaffed or manned by hopelessly inept waiting staff.

There are obviously a number of exceptions to this and they are the ones that survive and thrive. But they are few and far between. Most dining establishments are mediocre and unimaginative. I would say their pricing structure is commensurate with their product. Can’t Gatt see this?

You know, I can’t help feeling that despite the many efforts to present a courteous and welcoming image to visitors, we’ve actually regressed in this regard. Years ago, when the then Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Joe Psaila Savona, made a relatively innocuous remark about changing Malta from a destination for the “bucket and sand” brigade to one which attracts other types of tourists, all hell broke loose.

Now that we should have polished our hospitality skills, a leading minister has no compunction to inviting us to look down on budget tourists – the same ones which are the mainstay of a good segment of the tourism industry.

cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt