The detailed figures covering tourism arrivals, bednights, money spent and other related data for May will be analysed with more than the usual interest in this sector's figures. Tourism performance has been very weak this year, with April also turning negative despite the Easter holidays during the month.

The tourism trade is hoping that May was, overall, a turning point. There are reports that the carrying capacity improved during the month and will remain at a higher level up to the end of the tourism year in October. There is a popular belief that if there are enough flights coming to Malta the seat capacity will be adequately taken up, somehow.

One has to see whether that belief will hold good, given the changing composition of airlines flying to Malta. There has been a shift from scheduled airlines towards low cost carriers, with chartered flights accounting for the balance of arrivals.

Hotel operators say that the low cost carriers have served as a boon to Malta, although opinion remains divided as to how to reply to the new requests being made by Ryanair. The usual warning underlines various reasoned assessments of Ryanair's proposal to locate two airplanes here and increase its throughput to over a million users, provided the airport operator reduces the fees it charges to carriers.

The request, no doubt, is being carefully considered. Probably the most that the government can do, aside from handing out subsidies carefully, is to seek to ensure that Ryanair, should its demands be met, will not duplicate destinations already being serviced by the scheduled carriers, of which Air Malta is only one. The authorities cannot impose anything on the airport company, which is now owned and managed privately.

A lot of horse-trading will be taking place behind the scenes. The trade will be hoping that a positive outcome will be reached. What is meant by "positive" cannot be defined in a straightforward manner. It will imply different things to different factors in the tourism equation. What the government will need to ascertain, aside from equal treatment, relates to the short or medium term nature of any outcome.

In the long term we shall all be dead, but the tourist industry will need to renew itself through continuing short and medium term cycles. Measures taken now to increase arrivals as soon as possible, as Ryanair promises, will be counter cyclical. To say that the tourism cycle is currently in a downturn caused by the global recession would be an understatement.

Arrivals are down not only in Malta but practically everywhere else. An early boost would be welcomed by the sector. Yet the consideration of the effect of any new measures on medium-term prospects needs to be weighed very carefully.

Carriers aside, the tourism industry continues to beg for improvements in the public face of Product Malta. The announcement that additional capital outlays are being made available for the road programme this year is good. In the contest of the outstanding requirements, it cannot be enough.

Several more years will have to pass before Malta can boast a road network which approximates the quality of that of Cyprus, say, notwithstanding that our sister Mediterranean island acceded to the European Union at the same time that we did so.

One cannot comment about this aspect of our shortcomings without repeating oneself. Yet the authorities are not bothering to announce a programme of works targeting the tourist sector, with definite timelines. For easily understandable political objectives emphasis is placed on how the road programme will affect towns and villages, where the voters live. But the authorities must also be conscious of the most urgent requirements from the standpoint of locals and tourists alike.

No new initiative has been announced in this regard. The only thing new in the sector in recent months was the Prime Minister's reaction to the rise in the Harmonised Index of Prices. He was taken aback by the fact that the tourism sub-sector has risen quite sharply. The PM immediately promised he would look into the matter.

He was far too hasty in declaring that, as tourism organisations pointed out. The index reflected a seasonal rise in bednight rates, in the same manner that it reflects a drop in those rates in November. Through his declaration the Prime Minister did nothing less than encourage operators to press the Maltese tourism industry more harshly to meet their demands for lower rates.

One sector of the industry does require looking into, as this commentator and myriad others have been saying for a long time, not least since when we joined the EU. That is the restaurant sector. Notwithstanding the intense competition in it the cost of eating continues to rise to well above that in competing Mediterranean countries. When the rise is due to the increased cost of inputs, there is little one can do about it. But that is not always the case.

The cost of wine, for example, beggars belief, both by comparison to competing resorts, and also by knowledge of the cost at the purchasing level. The outcome of any investigations carried out regarding prices should be made public as early as possible. The practice of naming and shaming has yet to be seriously considered in Malta.

There should also be more focus on an effort to identify why the overall price level continues to rise in Malta, due to the fact that it has fallen even to zero or minus zero elsewhere in the EU.

Rising prices have a social impact which cannot be ignored. The trend also has an obvious economic impact which immediately affects our competitiveness.

The tourism sector too is badly affected in the process.

The May arrival figures will make it clearer where we're going this year. Whatever they say, even if they bring some relief to a very beleaguered sector, there remains much that needs to be done.

So far it is not evident that tourism, by being directly under the wing of the Prime Minister, is getting the full attention it requires and deserves.