I live in Sydney and although of Maltese background I am currently enjoying a first time holiday to Malta. I noted on arriving here that tourist numbers were in decline.

In my reading of things to see and do I have been surprised to learn of some of the wonderful offerings Malta has for tourists. Of particular interest to me are the Neolithic temples and that they are the oldest man-made structures anywhere in the world.

On this basis I was very keen to obtain one of the "last minute" tickets for the Hypogeum which are made available each day. I like many others made the effort to queue up early morning for this opportunity.

Unfortunately I and several other tourists whom I met at the Museum of Fine Arts were all disappointed to miss out on tickets due to circumstances at the time.

However, my story has a happy ending. After raising the issue, this group of tourists were delighted to find that the Ministry of Tourism was extremely helpful. The Ministry officials were absolutely outstanding in their efforts to ensure that we were accommodated and I cannot speak highly enough of this department. In particular Carina Dimech totally understands the concept of exceeding customer expectations and demonstrates the highest customer service levels.

Malta is a wonderful country and with the people here demonstrating such high levels of service it will go a long way to restoring its tourist numbers.