Encouraging tourists

On Saturday, April 3, I had an appointment in London for which I tried to fly on Friday and return on Sunday. I tried to book my flights over a week before but all the airlines that operate a direct route to any airport in London were fully booked. I had to fly on April 1 and return on April 5.

While in London I noticed that the taxis carry advertising encouraging people to take holidays in various countries such as Greece and Spain, but not Malta. All the tour operators I passed by had posters advertising most of the destinations they offer but again, Malta was not there.

The hotel receptionist told me that he travels abroad twice a year and was always planning to spend his next holiday in Malta, but whenever he tried to book, the tour operators offered him other destinations, and until now they always convinced him.

I did see an advertisement for Malta in a British newspaper. The advert was placed by a tour operator, advertising weekend breaks to various European cities. Malta was the most expensive destination - for example, while a weekend break in Paris costs £166.99, in Malta it costs £299.99, and both destinations are reached by air.

Having spent the weekend abroad, I went for dinner in an expensive restaurant in Paceville on Wednesday, April 7. The staff had to continuously ask clients to wait since the restaurant was full - some did and some did not.

We booked a two-day stay (April 17 and 18) in a hotel, and booked over three weeks before. The following week another two couples decided to join us and when we tried to book we were informed that no more rooms were available. When we insisted they told us that they prefer to reserve some rooms for tour operators since they are sold at a different price.

So flights to and from London were fully booked; there were no tourist publicity campaigns about Malta in London; British tour operators are convincing their clients to go to other destinations; a weekend break in Malta costs nearly twice that in Paris; an expensive Maltese restaurant was full with tourists on a Wednesday evening and Maltese hotels still reserve rooms for tour operators to be sold at a more expensive rate than that offered to us, which is reasonable.

Is there room for more flights to and from London? Why does the MTA not advertise Malta in London as other countries do? Are we understanding the British tour operators? Why should a weekend in Malta cost twice what it costs in Paris?

Have we got a crisis? I don't think so. Are we advertising ourselves? Definitely not enough, at least in the UK. How can we get more tourists if flights, hotels and restaurants are fully booked?