Striking a balance

We do have a tendency here to shoot ourselves in the foot. I mean, we badly need to upgrade tourism and all that we have to offer visitors, but cannot help going into a stridently critical mode every time something new is proposed.

I am referring to golf. Look at all the negative, and very often unjustified criticisms, made of the Rabat course proposal.

The same is being done about the new proposal for a golf course at Ix-Xaghra l-Hamra. At Rabat it was agriculture that was going to suffer. So it was claimed. At Ix-Xaghra l-Hamra it is garigue.

Please, can we keep a proper perspective? If some agricultural activities were to be sacrificed at Rabat, and a garigue area is now proposed to be turned into a lush green golf course in the limits of Mellieha, shouldn't we also consider that there are considerable benefits to counterbalance that which is negative - such as giving a much needed shot in the arm to tourism?

Can we also bear in mind that there is a wide acceptance that we need to promote golf, and that wherever it is in Malta that a golf course will be built, something is going to suffer, because of our limited land area? It will be agriculture perhaps (and probably), garigue maybe, or some archaeological remains. We have to determine where we can cause the least upset, while meeting the requirements of the golf course we must have.

We must protect what we have, and that includes agriculture, garigue and archaeology - and the tourism industry. A balance needs to be struck. Ultimately many jobs are at stake.

We should consider that over the last two decades or so, during which we have been milking the tourism industry for all it was worth, about the only significant development in the Maltese product has been the coming on stream of five-star hotels.

They were badly needed, both to upgrade the product on offer, and as a provider of employment opportunities. It is a pity nothing much else has been done to improve product Malta, though our livelihood depends on it.

We have architectural and archaeological jewels which in the main have remained unchanged over the many years Malta has been promoting them. Our heritage can stand up with any other country's and hold its own, but we have done hardly anything to improve our attractions, apart from notably costly but still insufficient restoration of historic buildings, mostly in Valletta.

But everyone recognises that it is not enough for tourism to offer only ancient monuments and history as attractions. How many buildings are visitors expected to see during a holiday here? How much time each day do we expect them to spend trudging from one historical or archaeological site to another?

Which explains why hundreds of thousands of tourists come to Malta in summer but so significantly fewer do the same in the other seasons, when the tourist traffic dwindles to a trickle in comparison. The fact is that in summer people can view architectural and archaeological attractions, and escape for days on end to the sea, but when the sea is not so inviting in winter, there is little to do here apart from admiring our enviable heritage.

The appearance on the scene of high-grade accommodation helped boost the conference and incentive travel (CIT) segment of the Maltese market, bringing visitors over when they were most needed. CIT today is recognised as a highly valued contributor to the economy.

But it is losing out to competitors because of the dearth of activities to engage in here when CIT is at its strongest, in the so-called shoulder months - those months throughout the year when the number of visitors to Malta is at an ebb.

Research into the CIT situation in Malta has found that conference organisers often specifically asked about facilities for a round of golf.

The lack of facilities we have for such activities cannot but be considered our CIT product's Achilles' heel.

It is estimated that there are some 6.2 million golfers and 5,850 courses in Europe, representing a growth of over 225 per cent in a decade, as the number of golfers in 1990 was estimated to be in the region of 1.9 million, of whom 53 per cent resided in the UK. And it has been noted that as farming incomes in Europe were falling, primarily due to cuts in subsidies, farmers were seeking alternative and more profitable uses for their land, stimulating the supply of land for golf course development to meet the increase in demand.

It must also be worth considering that the UK, our main tourist source, is considered to be the largest outbound market in Europe for specialist golfing holidays.

Critics of the golf course idea should not consider whether Malta can afford to develop a golf course, but whether it can afford not to have one.