As a leading travel agent in China I decided to use this newspaper to protest in public against the visa policy adopted by the Maltese Embassy in Beijing.
Last year in December the Maltese Embassy organised a trip for Chinese travel agents. My marketing manager Lily Lin (Lin Li) was one of a number of representatives from Chinese travel agencies invited to visit Malta. Our company was recommended by the President of the Malta China Friendship Society, Reno Calleja, whom I have known for many years and who never stops marketing Malta in China.
With Mr Calleja we discussed various ideas on how to promote Malta in China. This is not an easy task. The Malta Tourism Authority, unlike other tourism organisations representing other European and Asian countries and the US, does not spend one single euro in direct marketing. It does not have a tourism office in Beijing or in any other big cities in China, like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. Malta's competitors, Cyprus, Turkey, Tunisia, Italy, France, Germany, and all the other European countries, spend hundreds of thousands of euros promoting their country to the Chinese. No wonder. China is a country of 1.4 billion people. Millions of Chinese will be taking a holiday abroad next year.
Malta's main competitors are all attracting tens of thousands of tourists from China. Malta, once again, is not even featured in one single brochure in China this year.
Like Malta, Cyprus, Italy and other European countries are part of Schengen. How do their embassies manage to accept tens of thousands of Chinese to visit their country and the Embassy of Malta seems to do everything in its power to deny visas to travel agents wanting to send tourists to Malta?
I know the problems Malta faced when the previous Ambassador and the second secretary were caught up in a controversy regarding the issuing of visas to Chinese students and nationals to visit Malta. I suspect that the present Ambassador and his second secretary are carrying that baggage which makes them over cautious before issuing visas for Chinese tourists to visit Malta.
Take my case for example. On November 4, I applied for a Schengen visa from the Malta Embassy on behalf of Liyang, Shi Manyuan and Zhao Na from Hunan Jianhui Textile Corporation Limited. These representatives of this company wanted to use Malta as a base to export their products. Mr Calleja sent me an excellent report on how Chinese companies could benefit from the tax regime in Malta if these open an office there and use Malta as an export base for their products. This company fit the picture Mr Calleja gave us and he also convinced this company to use Malta.
After waiting for weeks for a reply from the Embassy we were informed that the visa application for these three company representatives was refused. No explanation was forthcoming. When we enquired with Mr Calleja about the refusal, he urged us to appeal to the Schengen Office in Malta. Appeal for what? Why should we bother? We will just drop Malta from our plans and go to Cyprus or Lebanon.
Malta was the first European country to sign a tourism agreement with the Chinese government. Europe followed suit. All other European countries are receiving tens of thousands of tourists from China.
Their tourism boards or authorities spend hundreds of thousands in advertising, promotional visits and marketing exercises to tap this lucrative Chinese market. Malta spends nothing. It is not equipped to attract Chinese tourists. To make matters worse it has an Embassy that instead of embracing travel agents who want to send Chinese tourists to Malta, looks at them with suspicion. My company sends a large number of Chinese to the US. I do not encounter these problems with the American Embassy here.
They are very serious and very careful but when they deal with serious companies they issue visas. Next year hundreds of thousands of Chinese will visit the US. The United States and China signed a similar agreement that Malta signed with China 10 years ago. How many Chinese tourists have visited Malta since then?
Europe is gripped by the worst recession in 30 years. Do not expect European tourists to flock to Malta next year. China will also be hit by the recession. But it will still register a nine per cent growth. Next year millions of Chinese will go abroad. Malta must take this market seriously or else it will miss out again. The Malta Embassy must be a strong tourism section with forward looking people who know the tourist trade and not career civil servants.