I would like to alert readers about my experience as a tourist in Malta towards the end of March.

All in all, we found the people of Malta to be hospitable and friendly and enjoyed the beautiful island. However, we were deeply disappointed by the operators of a cruise.

We purchased two tickets for the Gozo and Comino tour departing from Sliema. Even though we arrived on Gozo at lunchtime, no provision was made for lunch until about 4pm. Worse, we were stuck going around the island on a dangerously over-crowded old bus, exceeding its load limit, with people standing and sitting in the stairwell.

Even though we were on a tour that was supposed to have audio, it either didn’t work or we couldn’t use it when forced to stand for much of the journey. We hadn’t booked onto a hop-on, hop-off tour, but this is what we found ourselves on.

During this three-hour horror of a journey we had a 10-minute stop at a location where there were no public toilets nearby and at one other place where there were minimal facilities available, at which we were told we would stop for only five minutes.

The company has only once replied to an e-mail since the end of March, indicating they would get in touch again ‘immediately’, which they have failed to do.

They clearly show contempt for tourists who do not live in the country, believing that they are untouchable by their key client group. Moreover, they appear to me to fail in their responsibility to operate safely by having allowed too many people onto the bus. We only have to look at what has happened in Korea recently to understand what can happen when a lax attitude towards passenger safety is taken.