What many tourists find annoying

I congratulate Tourism Minister Mario de Marco on the record numbers of foreign visitors to Malta. I agree with his intention to place more emphasis on the unique aspects of the Maltese tourism product, like village cores, etc. After all, if you want to spend your holiday on the beach, Malta is not your best choice. I wish him success in promoting Malta as a great destination.

However, I wish to point out a few things that many tourists find really annoying, and to suggest some ways to remove or at least mitigate them and make Malta an even better destination.

To begin with, public transport. The old buses were terribly uncomfortable and quite a few of the drivers were downright rude. But they conveyed an atmosphere of being in the past; in a country in a time warp. With the new buses that charm is gone and the service should be brought up to contemporary standards.

When the new buses first appeared everybody lauded the drivers’ courtesy, but now they seem to be slipping badly. And whereas it is bad enough that so many Maltese drivers let their right arm hang limply out of the window, it looks downright horrible when you see bus drivers do the same. The situation should be remedied by discussing it with Arriva’s management.

Then there is the problem of differential tariffs for tourists and residents for the buses (and electricity). This policy does not only undermine the government’s exhortations to private industry not to rip off tourists by charging them more than locals but it also, apart from frustrating tourists, leads to delays in mounting the buses.

Let me make a suggestion: on the bus only one type of ticket is for sale at the same round price for everybody, e.g. a one-day ticket for €2. All other tickets – weekly, monthly, student, senior, etc. – have to be bought at ticket sales points. There is no need to distinguish between tourists and residents; if one would sell weekly tickets for €10 and monthly tickets for €20, for instance, as tourists normally don’t buy monthly tickets and very few buy weekly tickets. However, if there has to be a distinction, it would at least be not so visible.

Unfortunately, the roads are so bad in so many places that the ride on the new buses is no more comfortable than on the old ones. A simple solution would be to give priority to the upgrading/repair of those roads that are traversed by the buses.

The new roads to the airport are very nice but I encountered some tourists who were late at the airport as they had a problem finding it because the designation AIRPORT has disappeared from the road signs. Whoever came up with the idea to change all road signs (and destination information on the buses) from English to Maltese ought to be reprimanded as there is absolutely no other discernible purpose than to irritate the tourists. No Maltese lose their way when road signs are in English but plenty of tourists do when they are in Maltese. Let me suggest that this decision be reversed.

Then there is spring hunting and the ridiculously long autumn hunting season, which benefits almost nobody and gives Malta a bad name. I understand that unless both major parties agree to do what is right for the country, the hunters’ lobby makes it impossible to abolish hunting for the time being. However, tourists’ annoyance at having the peace and quiet of the countryside shattered by hunters could be greatly reduced by prohibiting hunting before 7.30 a.m.

I understand that most, if not all, of the problems touched upon are not in Dr de Marco’s remit but I would hope his colleagues would cooperate with him rather than try to hamper him.