Saturday, 19th July 2008
The fallout of the transport strike (1)
I received the following from a friend of mine.
What on earth is happening about the transport strike in Malta?
I've just had a disturbing e-mail sent from a former German client who has been coming to Malta for years. On this occasion she had brought her husband to view a small apartment in Sliema, a place she loves. She timed her visit to coincide with a stop-over being made by her brother and family who were on a luxury cruise stopping off in Malta. When my friend went down to the cruise liner terminal to collect her family from the ship, because she had arrived in a taxi, she was hassled and spat at!
They were afraid to leave the vessel but decided to take the risk and take a taxi to Valletta where, after shopping and lunch, they were met with crowds of angry protesters.
My friend had an expensive Maltese glass ornament she bought pushed out of her hand to the ground and broken.
The Germans couldn't understand why there were so few police around and those who were present did not seem to be taking action.
Now the cruise ship has left with the family vowing never to return and, today, my friend is flying back to Germany with all ideas of buying a property erased from her mind. Cruise liners carry hundreds of passengers. Imagine the impression these people are taking back to their country. In a time of tourist financial constraint, what is Lawrence Gonzi doing about the situation?
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Comments
Your comment is in such bad taste. Comparing a war with such incidents. Puerile indeed. The sort of arguments one hears when the German team is playing football - "I don't side with them cos they dropped so many bombs on us during the war"!
I consider every visitor to Malta as a guest and whom should be treated with respect whilst every Maltese has a role as an ambassador to promote the country and makes our guests feel comfortable and welcome.
Besides, tourism revenue is highly demanded in every tourist destination and we should not hesitate to be supportive in any way to help earn the revenue for the country by treating our guests with a right attitude.
By acting like a thug to chase away the visitors is damaging the country's image while diminishing the hard work that the Ministry of Tourism & stakeholders have been nuturing to make Malta a better choice amongst the competitive destinations for visitors are planning their holidays.
The demonstrators of the strike could hold their rallies else where and can scream at the top of their voice but not at the busy places because people have the right to go about their business in peace.
There is no excuse for any violence. Hopefully, the law breakers have learned their lessons.
I symphatize with the German Lady and don't blame her at all for being upset but I'm sure she had experienced polite manners by many other Maltese.
It is embarassing to read such news but let's not condemn all of Malta because of one or two villains.
Who do you think you are to dictate how a person should feel after being attacked and ridiculed in such a way. What if it were you being treated that way when visiting some other country - what would you do? What would you say? First impressions count a lot and had you been spat at when visiting Germany for example you would have come here telling us how rude the Germans are even though it would have been only one person who spat at you. That's how damaging this strike has been to tourism and our economy in general. You should not be speaking this way. You should be agreeing with Mr. Farrugia so that this is not repeated again!
Of course it upsets him, but to change plans because of a few unruly persons it's not the way to go.