9 - 15 December 1999

Landmark piece of legislation - Prime Minister

Whatever the ideological divide, whatever differences of opinion on matters of strategy and detail, your parliamentary representatives, as one, reached broad consensus in an overwhelming show of support for Malta's tourist industry.

The Malta Tourism Authority is a landmark piece of legislation. It establishes the broad legal framework within which tourism is organised, regulated, promoted, developed, enhanced and taught. Tourism is a people's industry. It is people who travel, people who host, that make tourism.

Malta and Gozo cannot be grouped with much less promoted and sold, like the Balearics, the Canaries, Tunisia, Turkey or Greece, where visitors spend holidays in resorts mixing with other visitors, hardly ever meeting the host community except when served in places of entertainment, retail outlets and public transport.

Our visitors live among us, ride the same buses, buy from the same shops, walk the same streets. They listen to the same noises as Malta awakes, goes to work, relaxes and finally goes to bed. They suffer the same discomforts as we do and join us in our fun and celebrations.

No one owes us a living. Nor do we possess some God-given right or privilege which, independently of our hard work, ingenuity and industry, can annually draw a million plus visitors to our shores.

When tourists visit shops, go to places of entertainment, make use of the same services that we do, and pay good money for purchases and services, it is not those who provide those goods and services and their staff that are providers but even the buyers themselves.

It is they who provide and substantially contribute towards the livelihood of both owners and employees. Hence the basic reason why we should always extend a sincere welcome, an appreciative "thank you", for being helpful and courteous to Maltese and visitors alike.

It is this culture which MTA's conference theme demands from each and every one of us.

We are entering a new age, an age of leisure. Pundits tell us that man will be spending more of his income than ever before on free time pursuits. The next decade will show that in developed economies the expenditure on food and sustenance will account for a smaller share of one's earnings.

Lifestyles are changing. Working hours are changing. As are attitudes. Modern day travellers have become experienced, streetwise and are always in search of personal and intellectual fulfilment. At the touch of a button many already make their own travel plans and packages. That number will grow. This will be the next generation of travellers.

This is the challenge, these are the opportunities that lie ahead for the Authority, for our tourism industry, for Malta.

The Authority's flexible structure allows private sector representatives all the space and full rein to operate and apply their undoubted expertise and culture, the fruit of their upbringing in the industry, to the national effort as they work in tandem with MTA's cadre of tourism professionals. The desired objective is "Achieving Together". Although it may still be early days the effect of "Achieving Together" is already being felt within MTA's structure and work practices.

I trust and expect that the great majority of operators within tourism's intimate family understand, disapprove and disassociate themselves from the harmful activities of an egoistic and avaricious few. It is unfortunately a minority that short changes, cheats, misbehaves and is responsible for that unwelcome image of insolent arrogance.

As the circle widens to envelop primary, secondary and tertiary suppliers of goods and services, namely yet more beneficiaries, individually smaller but collectively sizeable tourism players, one immediately understands and realises the near absence of awareness about tourism's impact as well as of the role which each and every factor in tourism's equation plays. The understanding that each individual contribution, small though it may be, benefits the industry, the general good, as well as oneself.

At the last count tourism's impact accounted for close to 25 per cent of GNP, 22 per cent to government revenue and close to 40,000 jobs. Popular appreciation of the industry is not measured in book-keeping and balance sheets terms. The health and viability of tourism's bottom line reflects a cleaner, more orderly, more aware country and a yet more welcoming host community. Nothing more and nothing less than the ambience in which we Maltese would willingly opt to live in ourselves.