Michael Cassar Torreggiani, secretary of the Maltese Timeshare Association which represents over 90 per cent of the timeshare industry on the island, insisted that not all OPCs are unruly.
“The majority in fact work hard, honestly and treat tourists extremely well. It is the few who ruin it for the majority. These are normally foreign employees who do not care because should anything happen to the OPC system here all they have to do is pack their bags and go and do the same thing in a different country like Tenerife or Cyprus.”
He said the Maltese Timeshare Association held a meeting for all OPCs currently working in Malta and explained what is expected of them. The main complaint made by tourists is being stopped too many times. The reason for this is that we operate in a small area with a large number of operators.
“We have made it very clear to the OPCs that they must be ethical at all times and never answer back. Identity tags must be worn and scratch cards are not to be used. We as managers are also patrolling the streets and reporting anyone not following the rules to the Malta Tourism Authority Enforcement division,” Mr Cassar Torreggiani said.
Asked about the kind of collaboration there is between their association and the MTA in this respect, he said: “Over the past year, months, and weeks we have had various meetings to work as closely as possible with the MTA and stamp out all possible complaints. All complaints received by the association from employees in the same industry are reported to the MTA. All written complaints received by the MTA are forwarded to us. We reply to these complaints to both the MTA and the tourists themselves.
Do you think their (the unruly OPCs) actions are harming the entire timeshare industry as well as the rest of the tourism industry in Malta?
“Not at all. Timeshare complaints come from a minority number of the OPCs operating in Malta. The timeshare industry is a brilliant concept and once a tourist purchases membership, this is a guaranteed tourist coming to Malta for the next 25 years. Besides this, over 60 per cent of the clients that return for their timeshare holiday later in the year or the following year actually increase their ownership from for example one week ownership to two weeks or from a low season week to a high season week.
“With regard to the rest of the tourism industry in Malta, we actually sell to tourists who say ‘we would have never come back to Malta but now that we know what type of accommodation we will stay in we have no hesitation in returning’. Therefore, on the contrary, we actually manage to get tourists to return to Malta who have a higher spending power that a normal tourist as the timeshare owner already has his accommodation portion of his holiday paid for leaving him with more cash in his pocket to spend in restaurants, bars, car hire, tours etc,” said Mr Cassar Torreggiani.
He said the Maltese Timeshare Association in the past held training programmes for OPCs together with ETC. As an association we are planning having further training programmes soon. Moreover, they also have a code of ethics that is followed and enforced. The code of ethics are monitored on a daily basis and the checks include dress code and tags. Enforcement includes suspension or termination of employment for big offences. “Unfortunately when one company decides not to abide by the rules then the whole industry gets a bad name,” Mr Cassar Torreggiani told The Malta Independent on Sunday.