From the online comments board

Relaunching tourism after COVID

“The Easter tourism flows will be a litmus test for the local industry, which is looking to achieve the 2019 levels of visitors.”

Ain’t gonna happen.

Despite the PM’s declaration that restrictions will be removed, and Easter being a mere two weeks away, current travel restrictions have still not been removed by the health authorities.

Easter made bye-bye already.

Summer… maybe, although people have been booking like mad all over the place, with Malta lagging behind due to excessively strict travel restrictions still being in place.

Inkomplu inkaxxkru saqajna, no rush ta. – Alan Castillo

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Rethinking the tourism economic model is long overdue. Overdue is a “positive” choice of adjective – positive nowhere better explained as the mother of all cock-ups.

That ship has sailed quite some time ago – I would say the last honest attempt (premature or botched) was the time when MTA launched a ‘Brand Malta’ project. More recently, COVID lockdowns provided a “golden” 11th hour opportunity to recover some ground and, although the tourism minister (of “mekkaniżms” fame) of that time declared this was the time to rethink our tourism offer, Jack-shift was done.

Today, the best we can aspire to is piecemeal attempts to take us from one season to another. This will prove quite difficult given the fresh mandate determined by the electorate to keep destroying the little decent spaces that remain. Not only, but, on the eve of election day, we also decided to continue with the degradation of our “English” speaking “ability”. For all it matters, I would like to re-share my own non-scientific UK tourist market barometer which I have developed over a number of years – a sort of Big Maconomics barometer.

For this I draw information from 12 tour operator shop windows distributed north and south of the Thames and a basic shopping list from three local groceries compared to same products from Tesco, Aldi and Sainsbury’s.

In a nutshell, my assessment tells me that, as a destination, Malta keeps falling down the value scale compared to other touristic destinations. Conversely, the cost of living accelerates in the opposite direction.

At this juncture I suppose the first lower hanging fruit is aiming to become an Amsterdam in the Mediterranean – it won’t last long and is highly counter productive but choices are severely limited. – J. J. Micallef

Gozo’s Clint Camilleri to retain hunting portfolio

The environment is going to be a priority they said but, in their first acts, they appease the hunters. Why would hunting ever fall under the ministry of Gozo? – Charles Mizzi

So what? Many ministers kept their previous responsibilities. –  Joe Camilleri

If those 50k non-voters really wanted to express an anti-corruption and anti-concrete jungle stance, they had the opportunity to vote in a third party – which would then set any coalition government on the right track, rather than the usual arrogant business-as-usual we all have to endure. – D. Borg

Absolutely abhorrent – it seems that the promise to embrace the 50k non-voters has already fallen flat face down. I am convinced that, along with the construction jungle aka development and corruption, the hunting issue was the main third reason why so many did not turn up at the voting booth last Saturday. – Patrizio Soluz

Joke of a party... Malta is full of Gaħans. €700m on environment. First lie. In a week we will stop counting the lies since it will already be too much. – J. Pace

What is wrong with that? In the past, we had ministers that didn’t know the difference between a bird and a dolphin and they were pulled by the nose by Birdlife Malta. Today, there is a minister who knows the subject well. Can you imagine that the minister responsible for health will be an architect or lawyer by profession? – A. Formosa

What do you mean what is wrong? It’s the same as putting a thief in charge of the police and the law. Hunting should fall under the environment and not controlled by a hunter. – R. Mallia