Businessmen from Valletta, like their counterparts in Gozo, often lament the challenges to their businesses.

Business and busy (ness) seem to be the order to the day

Many of us don’t see this as a concern because when we visit, business and busy (ness) seem to be the order to the day. Last Friday, was a case in point. The terminus was teeming as we left it and started to walk past part of the Renzo Piano project, which has aroused so much interest, debate and controversy. That is always a good sign, a sign that, though we rarely publicly show that we agree, we do care hugely about our capital city and how best to make it benefit from Piano’s design.

The main roads were bustling with what looked like office workers and tourists. A small market at the top of Merchants Street had attracted passers-by, some taking advantage of an upcoming Mother’s Day to sell appropriate trinkets. Further down Merchant Street one young man belted out a rock classic while a few minutes later a crowd had gathered outside the Museum of Archaeology in Republic Street to listen to an aria... belted out in full force by a man in costume.

It’s the same in Gozo.

You arrive in summer or on a long weekend, often after having queued for quite a while and think Gozitan business must be alive, very well and kicking. People are everywhere, busloads of tourists stream around being taken from one site to another.

Yet, for years now, the business communities in both Valletta and Gozo have been struggling from island-like challenges and asking for more practical help. The reasons are myriad but what these two areas both need and have in common, or what I always hear them tell me, is for more locals to visit, more of the time and to spend more consistently.

It’s understandable. Any business, however small, still has to pay electricity bills even during the off season. A small businessman or business woman still needs to pay his/her staff even if nothing is bought or consumed in his/her business. Many tourists, especially those coming from cruise ships, are on tight itineraries, sticking to their groups and perhaps not that keen to shop as much as retailers would hope.

Again, new coffee shops abound but for many their main source of business is locals and once the office workers have gone and the tourists have gone back to their ships it is eerily deserted in our capital city and in Gozo too.

In both localities, retailers and others repeatedly say that tourism from beyond our shores is vital but the need for so-called Maltese or local tourism actually spending money in Valletta and in Gozo is paramount to the health of both these important business communities.

And, of course, both areas remember different times when perhaps there was less competition, both locally as well as from ever more competitive budget airlines. Easy or far cheaper access is again the key to keeping the Maltese visiting, whether it’s Valletta or Gozo, as well as to make it easier for young Gozitans to continue to make Gozo their home.

Local business people are full of suggestions. Some like things as they are but others talk about tunnels or bridges or more ferries. In Valletta, many seem to want easier and cheaper parking. Surveys often don’t reflect the culture of countries enough to influence policy in the most productive ways.

Valletta, for example, has a car park but people are still hankering for the days when they could just pop in and collect something they need. Once they no longer can, they have taken their custom elsewhere and unless there is easier parking or a more extensive love of bus rides, the Maltese consumer seems to stay away or shops nearer to home where they can more easily pop there by car. Consequently, retail activity has shifted to areas where there is easier parking, or a perceived greater choice.

Many do of course use the car park but many other potential shoppers or browsers don’t, either put off by the cost or the car park itself or even the tiny walk in.

The whole debate on the Piano project and any possible uses beyond parliamentary debates is certainly worth the exploration at least and most of all if it can attract any more people to our glorious capital.

Can Valletta and Gozo go back to what many retailers view as better or their glory days?

Recreating every aspect of the past may not be entirely desirable but improving access by making it far cheaper and easier to access these two jewels could put a smile on the faces of the backbone of our economy: the very small, the small and the middle-sized business enterprises. And a smile, as they say, can launch a thousand ships, another potential and, as yet, largely unexplored element in improving access between and within so many parts of Malta and Gozo.