During the recent visit of the President of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, to Malta, many were the obvious comparisons made – in speeches and media commentaries – between the two island States to emphasise the almost uncanny similarities in their history, demography and economy size, national and regional psyche and ambitions. Some of today’s realities, though, tell another story.

Caught out and breathless we certainly are, for example, in the intensely competitive field of Mediterranean tourism. A short business trip to Cyprus last year, showed me why and how.

While we have remained faithful to the old marketing tactic of using adverts and colour brochures to sell an image that really does not exist, at least in whole, the rest of our competitors, the territorially-divided Cypriots included, have gone on with the business of restructuring the whole of their industry, thus making sure they made a real and proper leap into the third millennium. Amateurism was out and so were such ideas, as dependence on one major market and a tendency to take things for granted and the globalisation rope was quietly and efficiently shaped into a noose round one’s neck.

Tourism is a fickle industry and it can be admitted that we have more or less been lucky that the current crisis did not occur earlier. There was a time when we expected tourists to ignore the shabbiness and the building-site ambience, sometimes on the very doorstep of their holiday resort. And for a time they seemed to have done so because the arrivals statistics continued to soar year after year.

But that was before the cheap flights to places like Florida and the Caribbean, let alone our very own region where competitors seem to have been alerted well ahead of us for the need of a sharper, more niche-inclined campaign, a better service and a more professional approach to all things associated with the tourism industry. Infrastructure, for example.

On Cyprus, an island with a population that, give or take a few thousand, falls within the same size as ours and with an economy that sadly continues to have to contend with the daily reality of territorial and racial division, I found motorways that compare favourably with those on the Continent. And holiday resorts do not merely carry the five-star tag, they actually live up to it.

Yes, they drive on the left as we do, but the roads are good, clean and signposted. The traffic is heavy, but well-organised and seriously monitored. Drivers and pedestrians alike seem to be highly aware of the need to go by the book, quite obviously adhering to the proper code strictures and showing mutual courtesy and respect.

What has kept us so far behind, education? Or the government we deserve? Or the parochial nature of our politics? These are questions that kept cropping up in my head as I toured the place and met people from all walks of life. They still smile at you even if you’ve been to Reception Desk with an umpteenth problem. Dining there still feels like a good evening out rather than a hassle to keep your table even before dessert is served, that is when our waiters seem more anxious to see you leaving rather than knowing you have been satisfied by both the fare and the service offered.

While we were sold the fairy tale that European Union would finally and quickly see us into the 21st century, the Cypriots were busily making it happen with zest and dedication. While we were hoping we could one day find spiritual and financial salvation in Brussels, the Cypriots were not looking for magic wands, they just went into top gear to make their beautiful island a better holiday destination. After all, they speak English as much as we claim to do, they have many more sandy beaches and their holiday resorts surpass anything we have come up with in recent years.

This is not destructive criticism but a realistic comparison I have been able to make in my many travels across the whole region over the years. The sooner we admit our failures and fallacies the better. Only by an abrupt switch to a new mentality can the crisis be seen and felt to be a temporary one while we readjust to the realities and pressures of globalisation.

I cite the Cyprus example because of the many similarities. I can give one basic, albeit trivial, example. For one whole week wherever I was in Cyprus, I did not see a single waste-collecting vehicle, which we call a Scammel here, or a single person sweeping the pavements. And yet, the roads I drove on and the streets I walked in seemed incredibly clean. Were they trying to hide the whole public cleansing exercise from me?

In contrast, Scammels are an everyday, 24-hour apparition in Malta, while the street sweepers here, sometimes, turn up and move a broom around, but the state of our roads and streets resembles more a Baghdad battlefield than anything else. What has gone wrong? People of my age and more remember a cleaner, prettier Malta. Having had one make-up mask plastered on top of another, her face today looks clownish and worn out. Not only does it need lifting, but it could also do with an injection that would rejuvenate what were once her beautiful features.

There is a challenge to be met there, but is anyone really interested?