PKF Malta recently conducted a survey among tourists. The Business Observer asked the team who conducted the survey to highlight its main findings.
How was this survey conducted?
The survey covered a vast range of services including hotels, restaurants and public transport. It was conducted over a span of two weeks in Valletta, Sliema and St Julian’s. The survey asked tourists to assign ratings to the services under consideration together with any additional comments they might have.
What does PKF Malta aim to achieve through this survey?
The survey aims to highlight which tourist sectors are doing well and which ones need to be improved. This could help serve as a guide to the tourism industry.
Could you give us a basic overview of the sample structure?
The sample was made up of 205 responses with respondents coming from the UK (10 per cent), followed by Spain (nine per cent), Germany (nine per cent), France (seven per cent) and Italy (six per cent). The remaining countries were grouped accordingly based on their geographical location.
The sample was roughly equally distributed among males and females, with 51 per cent and 49 per cent respectively.
Seventy eight per cent of the respondents arrived in Malta in August while 12 per cent arrived in September. The remaining 10 per cent arrived during other months. The main reason for visiting Malta was for a holiday (77 per cent), while 10 per cent said they came to Malta on work, studies or training and 6.4 per cent came to Malta to visit relatives or friends. The remaining six per cent came to Malta due to other reasons such as diving.
This year has been a successful one in terms of tourist arrivals. In relation to this, how did the hotel industry fare?
Overall the hotel industry fared well with over 50 per cent of the responses obtained giving a rating of ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ when asked about the quality of rooms, food, service and the helpfulness of staff. However out of these four, the quality of food seems to be the least satisfactory. There were some complaints including the lack of hygiene in hotels, noise pollution and the fact that some rooms had no windows.
The prices charged by hotels turned out to be the least satisfactory, with only 40 per cent of respondents assigning a positive rating. Thirty six per cent of the entire sample found the prices to be ‘average’, 13 per cent gave a rating of ‘poor’, and one per cent rated the prices as ‘very poor’. It should be stressed that when compared to last year’s results, the quality of service was rated much better, registering a 14 per cent increase.
Overall the hotel industry fared well with over 50 per cent of the responses obtained giving a rating of ‘good’ or ‘excellent’
What about restaurants?
The restaurant industry seemed to fare quite well, with the best area being the quality of the food. With 72 per cent of all responses yielding positive ratings, it is evident that tourists are quite satisfied with the quality of food on offer. When comparing the ratings between age groups it emerged that respondents aged 18 to 47 seemed to be more inclined to give a positive rating than those aged 47 and over.
The quality of service was also quite well met with 71 per cent giving a positive rating.
Furthermore, males were slightly more inclined to give positive ratings than females.
One should point out that only seven per cent of the entire sample gave negative ratings to the quality of service. With regards to prices, 52 per cent gave positive ratings, 37 per cent rated prices as ‘average’ and 10 per cent found prices to be expensive. Also, a number of respondents pointed out their disappointment at the expensive restaurant prices while a couple of respondents had some nice words to say on the service and staff.
Public Transport has been somewhat of a controversial issue locally. Do tourists show any particular resentment to this sector?
Public Transport received a rather mixed reaction from respondents. Certain areas such as driver helpfulness and prices were very well received and praised, however when it came to the bus schedule and buses in general, there were large problems. With 53 per cent of the survey responses giving positive ratings to driver helpfulness, only 15 per cent gave negative ratings. An even better performance was recorded for ticket prices, with 64 per cent of all respondents finding the prices to be very satisfactory. With only 10 per cent giving a negative rating it is evident that the current bus fares are very popular with tourists.
The ratings obtained for buses were rather mild. In fact 42 per cent gave a positive rating, 20 per cent gave a negative one while 26 per cent found the buses to be ‘average’. With bus schedules it was a completely different scenario. With as many as 42 per cent of all respondents giving this service negative ratings this was the worst response in the entire survey. Only 25 per cent gave positive ratings to the bus schedule while 22 per cent found them to be average.
When viewing the additional comments, one could not help but notice the dissatisfaction most respondents showed with regards to bus tardiness and overcrowding. Moreover the disorganisation of the bus schedules as well as the rude manner of certain drivers were highlighted by a number of respondents. When comparing percentages for this year with those obtained for last year it becomes evident how the situation with regards to bus schedules has deteriorated, with an increase in negative ratings and a decrease in positive ratings. On the other hand, bus driver helpfulness fared much better this year than last year in terms of positive ratings.
Tourists’ views on bus schedules have deteriorated since last year’s survey.Were positive results recorded with regards to cleanliness, archaeological and cultural sites and activities and entertainment?
The disorganisation of the bus schedules as well as the rude manner of certain drivers were highlighted by a number of respondents
Archaeological and cultural sites, activities and entertainment fared quite well. With a percentage of positive responses slightly above the 50 per cent mark, it seems that the services offered are satisfactory. Unsurprisingly, when it came to entertainment, the younger respondents, aged 18 to 27, gave the highest percentage of positive responses. As opposed to most other sectors, respondents found entertainment prices to be very reasonable.
The older age groups, those respondents aged 58 and over seemed to be very satisfied with the information and cleanliness of the archaeological and cultural sites they visited. Cleanliness on beaches, roads and cities was not as positive as the above mentioned sections. Cleanliness on beaches garnered a mere 35 per cent in positive ratings while cleanliness in cities and roads garnered 33 per cent and 30 per cent positive ratings respectively. Many respondents further commented on the large amounts of rubbish at beaches and the lack of dustbins available in a number of places.
Respondents were also asked to rate their overall stay in Malta. How did that section fare? What about the upcoming V18 event? Did respondents know about it?
Positive ratings were recorded for respondents’ overall stay. When asked how they rated their stay in terms of what they expected, 63 per cent gave a rating of ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ while 25 per cent stated that it was ‘average’. Of the remaining 12 per cent, only three per cent gave negative ratings. Males and females shared similar views on this matter while the most dissatisfied group seemed to be respondents aged 48 to 57.
On the other hand, when asked to rate their stay in terms of the money they spent, a smaller percentage of positive results was recorded, 50 per cent to be exact. Thirty seven per cent found their overall stay to be ‘average’ in terms of the money they spent while only five per cent found it expensive. A number of respondents further voiced their dissatisfaction at the prices charged.
When asked about the V18 event, 79 per cent of the sample had not heard about it and the remaining 21 per cent had.