I am an Australian of Maltese decent who has fallen in love with magnificent Malta and, in particular, Valletta. I am so in love with Malta and Valletta that I have purchased a small maisonette in this beautiful city.

It is because I care so much for Valletta that I wish to suggest two areas which have the potential to negatively impact on the experience of visitors to this city and, con-sequently, impact unfavourably on tourism.

The first is the increasing and sometimes aggressive face-to-face marketing which one is subjected to when simply walking down Republic Street and also Merchants Street.

Although these people appear to be friendly, they in fact attempt to trick polite passers-by into coming into their shop so that they can pressure them to purchase goods.

On occasion, I have even heard these individuals make disparaging remarks about people who try to ignore them.

This type of experience is annoying to tourists, to say the least, and has the potential to spoil their visit.

The other phenomenon which seems to be growing and which can also tend to spoil visitors’ experience in Valletta occurs in the evenings, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. There seems to be a growing number of very loud and very young teenagers roaming Republic Street.

I understand the exuberance of youth and do not wish to diminish their fun. I also understand the fact they have limited places where to socialise but Republic Street is not a good place for any group of individuals to be loud and fool about as it detracts from the experience of others sitting at tables trying to enjoy the serenity of the historic city.

I hope the city authorities can influence both these issues for the better experience of people visiting Valletta.