Europe on the rebound as Malta 'shrinks'

The international situation can no longer be blamed for the "poor" start Malta's tourism industry got off to in 2004, Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association president Winston Zahra says, using a World Tourism Organisation report to back his argument.

The MHRA has been expressing its concern that "Europe and other destinations are growing, while Malta is shrinking", and the latest issue of the WTO World Tourism Barometer, published at the end of June, further confirms that.

The report says that tourism is on the rise again. "Short-term tourism data for the first months of 2004 confirm the upward trend already visible at the end of 2003. With the cease of the major geopolitical tensions and in spite of constant uncertainty all over the world, as proven by the recent terrorist attacks, signs are that travel confidence is back."

It shows that the positive economic performance and prospects in the major tourism generating markets indicate that conditions are present for demand to be back on the track to growth.

The majority of countries with data available report substantial increases for the first months of the year, but, of course, compared to the negative, or weak baseline of the same period last year. However, in most cases, the losses of last year are, in general, fully compensated and a real increase still remains, the WTO barometer suggests.

In Malta, on the other hand, tourism volumes in the first three months of the year were 3.2 per cent down on 2003 and remain five per cent lower than 2002 levels (the winter season immediately post 9/11) and 9.5 per cent lower than levels in 2001 (the winter season pre-9/11).

The WTO's barometer says that in southern and east Mediterranean Europe, destinations considerably affected in the first months of 2003 due to the pending conflict in Iraq, such as Cyprus and Turkey, are back on the growth path with increases of 11 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.

In spite of initial fears, the tragic events in Madrid seem not to have influenced the pace of growth in Europe and results are overall positive.

In Northern Europe, the UK kept track with its good performance last year and ended the period until April with an increase of almost 15 per cent. Within Western European main destinations, Germany showed a 10 per cent increase in arrivals for the first quarter of 2004, while France's overnight stays in hotels in the first five months grew by 1.4 per cent over last year's decrease of seven per cent in the same period.

Countries of central and eastern Europe continue with the good results of the last months of 2003, the barometer states. Hungary and Poland hit increases of over 10 per cent, partly benefiting from the extra international exposure created in the framework of their entry in the EU. Available data show increases of 10 per cent in Jordan and of more than 10 per cent in Dubai.

In North Africa the alleviation of the geopolitical tension over the war in Iraq contributed to improving results. Arrivals to Tunisia grew by 20 per cent, continuing the recovery of the last two quarters of 2003. In Morocco the liberalisation of air traffic from February seems to have already had an impact on the performance of the destination, which saw arrivals growing by almost 20 per cent over an already positive first quarter of 2003.

The chief of the WTO's market intelligence and promotion department, Augusto Huéscar, was quoted as saying that "confidence has returned among travellers and the industry and the tourism sector is heading for a robust rebound in 2004 on the weak figures of the past years. Of course, there are uncertainties left, such as the threat of further terrorist attacks and the high energy prices but this hardly seems to affect tourism for the moment".

Mr Zahra said that while the WTO results are of concern because the trend in Malta is not moving in the same direction as most other destinations, the fact that international tourism is showing clear signs of recovery is definitely positive news for the country.

"As the MHRA has stated time and time again, we need to ship into shape our product, in the widest possible sense and concurrently invest in a redesigned marketing strategy in line with today's market expectations.

"This is the only way we can keep Malta at the forefront of people's minds when they are choosing a destination to travel to," Mr Zahra said.