The Tourism Ministry is giving timeshare touts until Friday to "clean up their act or else get off the road", after it received a deluge of complaints on the "devious" tactics adopted by outside promotional contacts (OPCs) from harassed tourists and shop owners.
"The situation has reached intolerable proportions and Qawra, Bugibba and the Sliema Front have been transformed into Cowboy Land - we cannot handle these people with kid gloves," Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech said when contacted by The Sunday Times. "Enough is enough."
In the past few days numerous tourists have written or called in complaining of having their path "literally blocked" by timeshare touts, who didn't know how to take no for an answer and who "insult and call us names" when their offer is refused.
The present state of affairs has reached such untenable proportions that Dr Zammit Dimech called an urgent meeting with Malta Tourism Authority executive chairman Romwald Lungaro-Mifsud and MTA Enforcement Directorate director Frank Farrugia on Friday to take a stand.
A letter has been sent out to all timeshare marketing companies, calling on them to take immediate remedial action to control and eliminate the behaviour demonstrated by OPCs.
"If within the coming week no such improvement is noticed, immediate action will be taken to enact the necessary regulations that would prohibit the street promotion of timeshare in whatever format," the letter said.
Dr Zammit Dimech said that despite the goodwill from timeshare operators, the level of harassment has continued unabated and the "devious methods adopted by OPCs to entice tourists to purchase timeshare" were unacceptable.
A number of souvenir shop owners and hotels have also registered their complaints after "unruly" OPCs have taken to loitering in front of their premises and scaring potential customers away.
"One shop owner has complained that when he told the OPCs to get off his premises, they retaliated by standing outside and telling tourists about to enter to stay away because it was an expensive outlet," Dr Zammit Dimech said.
The GRTU - Malta Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises, has also made an official complaint on the behaviour of OPCs, who were ganging up and scaring people away with their rude behaviour and attitude.
"We feel that OPCs have been given ample warnings and we've had numerous talks in an attempt to improve the situation, but the situation has now got out of hand," Dr Zammit Dimech insisted.
This is not the first time that the OPCs have been warned. In March, The Times carried an interview with Mr Farrugia in which he had said that timeshare touts had to clean up their act or the Enforcement Directorate would be left with no alternative but to restrict their numbers.
The number of licensed OPCs roaming the streets selling timeshare for some local resorts stands at 77 and the competition has become so aggressive that tourists are being harassed, especially by the foreign OPCs.
Timeshare guarantees repeat business and the timeshare association estimates that this industry generates 100,000 repeat guests a year.
"However, in their attempt to reach their targets, OPCs are damaging the rest of the tourism industry," Dr Zammit Dimech said.