The Malta Tourism Authority is looking into the possibility of re-launching the Brand Malta exercise that had failed miserably in 2006.
The announcement was made by the authority's CEO, Josef Formosa Gauci, during a conference on how the global financial crisis is affecting the tourism industry.
The 2006 branding attempt, headed by Norwegian consultant Christian Sinding, who had a €30,000-a-month contract, ended in disaster and the project was abandoned.
It should have been one of the few campaigns to instantly receive the thumbs up from everyone, given the part tourism plays in the economy. But the exercise failed before it even started.
Mr Formosa Gauci, who at the time formed part of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, said the 2006 branding exercise had fallen through "for various reasons". He would not delve further in the plans, saying it was premature to give any details.
"We discussed it again within MTA. We have to learn from the mistakes of the past. We cannot go down that road again but, yes, we are looking into the possibility of another branding exercise," he said.
Asked for his reaction, MHRA president and hotelier Kevin DeCesare said that if the re-branding exercise was going to cost a lot of money, then the money should better be spent on other things at the moment.
He said he could not comment on the new exercise because he knew nothing about it. However, the money could be spent on advertising and promotion, which was direly needed.
"We are very worried about the present situation. April looks stable but May and June are not looking good. We need a further €8 million for marketing and we need a super ministry to take care of the little details that make such a big difference to our product. This is what we need at the moment. Now is the time to act so maybe we could salvage something of the upcoming summer season," he said.
With regard to improving the product, Mr DeCesare told the conference, organised by the association representing students following courses in tourism studies, that now was the time to address this issue and improve what the country offered visitors.
"Our product is so poor. We have to make an effort because marketing by word of mouth is the best form of marketing. No ministry seems to have the power to get things done," he said.
"It's like there is competition between the various ministries. Ministries are very creative in finding reasons why not to get things done rather than using the same creativity to get things done. The present crisis is deep and needs to be addressed nationally with the utmost of haste."
Mr Formosa Gauci said that, in these challenging times, all tourism stakeholders had to remain focused on three priorities: accessibility, marketing and product development.
Malta's most important source markets, including the UK, Spain, France, Italy and Germany, were in recession. People still wanted to travel but their plans were being hindered by uncertainty. In the UK, he said, operators were taking bookings with money-back guarantees should the potential travellers be made redundant before their holiday.
Furthermore, the British Sterling had lost 30 per cent of its value, meaning holidays in Malta cost Britons 30 per cent more.
These were all major challenges, Mr Formosa Gauci said, but Malta had the tools to weather the storm.
Addressing the conference, economist Gordon Cordina said, among others, that 98c of every €1 spent in Malta remained in the economy, with 73 cents of the €1 spent on hotels and restaurants. From an economist's point of view, Dr Cordina said that, as a short-term measure, Malta had to focus on "timely, targeted and, possibly, temporary" solutions but in the medium and long term, the country had to look at focusing on more specific niche markets rather than targeting "the masses".
mxuereb@timesofmalta.com