Offhand comments can hurt tourism

We seem to have some chip on our shoulder when it comes to hosting tourists below the four-star market. Some years ago the then Minister of Tourism broadly announced that Malta was no longer interested in the so-called ‘bucket and spade brigade’ and that we were looking for the four- and five-star tourist.

The result was that the major tour operators exploited his quote and all hell was let loose within the industry with Malta receiving a substantial amount of unwarranted bad publicity.

We recently had Transport Minister Austin Gatt announcing that public transport fares would be more expensive for tourists. I happen to agree with his reasoning, although I am aware that many do not; however, public transport in Malta is cheap compared with other countries and the fact is that the Maltese taxpayer is subsidising the service, so it follows that this subsidy should be enjoyed only by residents.

However, had this announcement been worded differently, such as ‘anyone presenting a Maltese ID card will get a discount (irrespective of the nationality of the card holder)’, it would not have been aimed directly at the tourist and would not have created a fraction of the adverse publicity or have given the opportunity to every foreign tourism correspondent to jump on the bandwagon and put Malta on the forefront of publicity for all the wrong reasons.

One cannot even begin to understand how fragile the tourism market is, and how easy it is to discourage tourists from coming to Malta with such comments. We must never forget that their choice of holiday destinations is unlimited.

Having worked in the hospitality industry for over 45 years, the only advice I can give, using an old Maltese saying is ‘the more legs a table has to stand on, the firmer it will be’ as when one leg drops off the others can take the weight.