Being a avid fan of Malta (having visited three times this year already for a total of 10 weeks) I am shocked at the total lack of interest in halting the decline in tourism, by which I do not mean language students who fill beds and spend little or no money.

Tourists like to eat out, have a drink and spend money shopping and enjoying themselves, chatting with the very friendly locals.

However, since it adopted the euro, Malta has become very expensive. Since no customs duty is paid on imports from the EU, why have prices in Malta have gone up when they should have gone down?

Beer, food and other essential tourist items are now more expensive than in the UK. Air Malta charges more for a return flight to Manchester return than for a Manchester to Malta return flight. Why?

The hotels have fallen prey to their own greed. All-inclusive rates are a great idea in the Caribbean or Mexico, where it is not safe to venture out of the complex, but Malta survives on local shops, fresh produce and the daily chat, and probably has the lowest crime rate in Europe. So why do we need these?

Also, the attitude of some bar and restaurant owners is not exactly helping tourism - they allow patrons to smoke, since they cannot smoke in a pub back home. They switch off the air-conditioning to save on their energy bills, so what we get is warm beer in warm bars! And they put their prices up. This is not how it should work.

I had lived in Malta for 10 years and am married to a Maltese/English lady; I have two fantastic children who have dual nationality of which they are both very proud.

When I worked for a large tourist company in Malta the country was booming, but the way the country is going you will lose all your tourism to low-spending students.

The government needs to educate the people so they understand they are being publicly ripped off. Can someone explain how a country that had a great holiday foundation has hotels, bars, restaurants and shops closing all the time?