The private and public sector both share a vested interest in a successful leisure industry, the first because visitors spend money on anything from a cab to a cinema to a museum and to the many hotels and restaurants that operate on the island, the second because part of this spend ends up in the government's coffers. If the tourism sector limps quite a few operators limp alongside it.

We are all agreed that last year is one best forgotten by the industry, a glimmer of light appearing only towards the end of 2006 when Malta experienced its first taste of low-cost travel - provided by Ryanair. That glimmer continued to be visible with January tourism figures and should become more substantial when GermanWings starts its own low-cost operations this month.

The point now is that we must stop moaning about 2006 and start involving ourselves in making 2007 a better year. We mean the government, the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA), our airport and airline, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) and all its members, our places of culture and entertainment, our site development managers, our road and transport system, our refuse collection system, our police, our wardens, our shopkeepers and pretty well everybody in general with whom tourists come into contact.

It looks as if the MTA has finally emerged into the real world and that it has overcome the disastrous period when it appeared, at one time last year, to have lost its direction. For its part, the MHRA must now stop wallowing in self-pity and look to its own horses. Blame can certainly be attached to the MTA and to the government and to everybody who has a contribution to make Malta a better, cleaner, more hospitable destination than so many others with which we compete, as blame can be attached to some members of the MHRA who think price before value and service.

Of course the industry wants "substantial growth" as MHRA president Josef Formosa Gauci said during a business lunch recently, but merely wanting it will not bring it about. We must all work hard for that. The big players, the government, MTA and MHRA, Air Malta and low-cost airlines, must be more imaginative and creative in attracting visitors. And once these do their bit to market the island, the islanders in their manifold capacities must live up to the marketing slogans. Useless to market Malta as the best kept secret if, on being discovered, there are those prepared to disappoint the discoverers. We have in mind here grocers who overcharge, restaurants that over-price their wares (especially when it comes to wine), service providers who are surly, infrastructure providers who allow work in public areas to proceed at a snail's pace and, as if that were not enough, in a messy manner (we have in mind, here, the Sliema Promenade that has been in the embellishment process for months now; there are other sites that no doubt qualify).

Having said that, it needs to be remarked that there is still much about the island that is praiseworthy: The generosity and charm of most of the islanders (how many people have we encountered abroad, who are willing to go the extra mile to help a visitor in any form of distress?), a heritage in the shape of art treasures, churches, palaces, temples and cities, and - let's not knock them - sea, sun, sky and weather.

We have a great deal going for us. We need to appreciate this and so to welcome our visitors as friends and traders of hospitality, that they will not be able to help appreciating it, too. The hymn's all right. The singers are not always in good voice.