The first month of 2011 has come and gone. The stories that started to unfold in January, however, are far from over. The North African plain is going through a period of great difficulty, with social unrest and pain spreading from one country to another. The world is watching, unsure of what is about to be delivered.
As part of the great community of countries we hope for the better, fully aware, however, that, in such situations, things can go for the worse. Change is inevitably a painful process. One can only hope the pain is ultimately justified.
This week, the National Statistics Office published its findings on tourism in the month of December 2010. They confirmed our end-of-year estimate that 2010 was going to be a record year in terms of tourism arrivals, tourism expenditure and nights spent by tourists in Malta. We not only exceeded 2009 arrivals by 150,000 but also exceeded 2008 by 42,000. For the first time ever, we surpassed the 1.3 million arrivals mark. Out tourism industry is now a billion euro industry; €1.1 billion to be precise. The number of nights spent by tourists in Malta has reached record levels, in excess of 11 million nights. The cruise industry is also enjoying healthy increases over last year, bringing additional revenue into the country.
One might ask what relation is there between our tourism industry and the events in Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria? Some see these events as a possible windfall gain for our tourism industry. With the doors of these countries closed to business, we could and, in fact, are attracting visitors that were heading in that direction. Ultimately, however, tourism flourishes in periods of stability. It is, therefore, in our long-term economic interest for the situation in our neighbouring countries to return to a level of normality as quickly as possible.
We have no control over the situation in North Africa, like we have no control over the price of fuel and other factors that can influence, positively or negatively, the tourism industry. We monitor these events to see how best to intervene in the best interest of our industry.
On other issues we have a stronger measure of control. Our actions, particularly in the way we have made Malta more accessible and in the way we have marketed our islands abroad, have produced record years in all but one of the past four years. We have managed, year after year, to raise the benchmark against which we judge our performance and against which our performance will be judged.
This government was elected to carry out a job…which includes safeguarding the income of our families and giving a fair return to those who invest in our islands. It is to each stakeholder’s great credit that we have managed to do so despite the international economic woes that have plagued the world for the past two years. These economic woes are still around and will be working against us during 2011.
We need to focus our resources, including our mental resources, to stay ahead of the game, which we are. The United Nations’ World Tourism Organisation this month recognised Malta’s remarkable achievements, in this regard. However, the first lesson I learnt over the past three years is that in tourism every year brings with it its particular challenges. This year will be no different. We are already aware of some of the challenges ahead. The developments taking place in Air Malta, North Africa, the price of fuel are issues we know about and monitoring closely. I am sure 2011 will conjure some more rabbits out of its hat. We, as in government, the private sector and unions, need to tackle these together.
The statistics published by NSO point to a number of interesting sub-plots. Italy is now our second largest market up by a third over last year. Scandinavia is up by nearly 40 per cent, Spain by almost 50 per cent. More younger tourists are choosing to holiday in Malta. These are a direct result of action we took over the past months and years. Our investment in increasing the air links between Malta and Europe is bearing fruit, as is our investment to sell Malta as a vibrant country where so much happens in so little.
Permit me to conclude by thanking all those whose efforts were instrumental in achieving the results of 2010. They can rightfully bask in a brief ray of light and appreciation. But they cannot batter an eyelid or be complacent in the face of competition and the various unknowns this industry predictably churns in 365 days of the year. It is only by remaining focused, realistic in expectations, innovative and, yet, authentic in what we offer that we can sustain last year’s results and look beyond.
Dr de Marco is Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, the Environment and Culture.