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Author: Henry Ashworth | Total views: 45 Comments: 0
Word Count: 734 Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2009 8:06 AM

Malta's Tourism Industry Sees Improvements on the Horizon

Malta, the largest of the Maltese Islands south of Italy in the Mediterranean, counts tourism as an important component of its economy. This has magnified the concern associated with the decline in tourism in the last few years. Attributed mostly to the economy, the island experienced a loss of 45,000 tourists in 2007 from their main market, Great Britain.

Malta's Mediterranean climate of dry hot summers tempered by sea breezes and mild winters has been an attractive drawing card for visitors from Great Britain. It offers the usual water associated activities like sailing, snorkeling, sun bathing and swimming along with hotels ranging from four star to tourist level. Restaurants abound on the island and the cuisines offered run the gamut from Mediterranean to Japanese. Shopping, golfing and some spectacular sightseeing round out the activities.

Malta is fairly low key and more than suitable for family outings. The tourist industry would like nothing more than to broaden its appeal to draw in more younger tourists as well. Developers have been planning on new hotels and upgraded activities. The deterrent has been the economy. With fewer tourists hotels have found themselves experiencing occupancy shortfalls, particularly the upscale establishments.

Not only are tourists either staying home or choosing different vacation venues, but those who do come to Malta are opting for accommodations other than the usual tourist hotels. Everyone in the tourist industry knows that the key to a robust tourist trade lies in the repeat visitors. Lately, however, Malta has become more of a one-out destination.

Transportation to and from the island has been one factor that many industry experts have been struggling with for the past few years. Although a number of cut rate airlines have applied for routes to Malta, the government has been reluctant to grant them. The concern has been that the competition would not be beneficial to the state-sanctioned airline, Air Malta. Much to the relief of the hoteliers, airlines such as Ryanair and Clickair were awarded landing rights in late 2006.

The success of the bare bones airlines that offer transportation at rock bottom prices is, at the same time, a double edged sword. As the cheaper airlines gain landing rights from more and more countries and cities, people who may have been drawn to the less expensive vacation destinations may start choosing other venues. And the domestic Malta tourist trade would have the same opportunity to go abroad for their holidays.

Malta's tourist industry must persuade the government that it has to upgrade its infrastructure and improve the environment for tourists. The hope is that Malta will win back more of its lost British tourists and that visitors will stop viewing Malta as a one-off trip. So far the cheaper airlines seem to be doing their part. Though tourism is still off due to the state of the economy, Ryanair was reporting that immediately after winning landing rights, it was taking a reservation for transportation to Malta at a rate of one every minute.

In addition to the cultivation of cheaper airlines, tourist industry experts in Malta are also eyeing the cruise ship market. Malta-based cruise ships could be a boon to some of the tourism problems. In addition the government is doing its best to refit docks and build new births for cruise ships. The government also wants to lay a buoy so that cruise ships can anchor outside of the harbors.

Getting cruise line passengers onto the island will not solve the hotel problem to be sure. But the influx of customers spending money shopping, dining and sightseeing will definitely help to get things back on track. If enough tourist euros can be generated, the government and private enterprises will be able to initiate the long overdue improvements necessary to draw more tourists to Malta.

It's likely that tourism will continue to experience more downs than ups until the general economy begins to rebound. There are some good signs for Malta's tourism industry. While visitors from Great Britain continue to decline, there is an increase in vacationers from other countries. Visitors from Germany, France, Italy and Spain, among other European countries, have increased slightly in the past few years. The numbers have not yet offset the drop in British vacationers, but these days any good news is very good news.