When one sector of the economy contributes nearly one-fourth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and provides employment for thousands of people every year, you have to take care of that sector’s health.

For the past 15 years or so, the government and the private sector have sought the right formula to attract tourists to Malta and, at the same time, strike a balance between high-volume, low-spend and low-volume, high value-added tourists.

The National Tourism Organisation, later the Malta Tourism Authority, devised a number of strategic plans to promote Malta in the various source markets that provided Malta with a regular flow of incoming visitors. Unfortunately, the heavy hand of bureaucracy and a not-very-streamlined operation more often than not led to duplication, confusion and clashes with the industry’s stakeholders. It was also an expensive operation, especially when the MTA had its own offices abroad.

What may have been the MTA’s greatest weakness in the past was its sole focus on marketing and a lack of consistency in the way it presented the island to foreign markets. At a recent seminar organised by the MTA to brand Malta, the message was clear: people have to identify with a product that is consistently presented. Adverts, for example, have to be the same, irrespective of the market they are shown in – be it in the UK or in China. Consistency is what makes a brand well-known and enduring in the eyes of the tourist.

However, branding must be complemented by more than a marketing strategy. For a brand to become a household name, it has to be “sold” to the market. Instead of marketing Malta, the island has to be sold to tourists. This is probably the biggest difference between the way the MTA operated and the private sector did business.

The approach taken by the MTA appears to be changing drastically. This week, the authority announced that seven segment leaders had been appointed and these individuals will be responsible to not only market the Malta brand, but to sell the brand in the markets that Malta’s tourists come from.

These new appointments are part of an overall restructuring exercise the authority concluded in October. The emphasis in the exercise was to streamline the authority’s human resource structure, reduce the lines of reporting and, most importantly, to become more commercially-focused. While one could easily argue that this is but another formula being tested by the MTA, it is also true that this is the first time that the authority will be aggressively selling, and not just marketing, the Malta brand.

The restructured set up and modus operandi will work, provided that each and every sector within the authority is accountable and achieves its targets as established by the MTA’s management. This exercise is still in its initial stages but coupled with an effective brand for Malta, the tourism industry may be able to consolidate its activities and strengthen its market share in the face of strong competition – especially in the Mediterranean basin.

There is one other point to make. The MTA’s “sales reps” can sell the Malta brand till they drop and Malta could be featured in every brochure and on every television station that matters. But unless we – the Maltese – get our act together and ensure that what we are offering really exists, then nothing will work.

The public has to realise that the MTA’s restructuring and branding exercise will only be successful if it gives its contribution – by being more courteous to visitors, by offering a service with a smile, by treating tourists as they would a Maltese client and not try and rip them off and by becoming ambassadors for our island when they are abroad.

Small things – but they make can make a huge difference to a tourist coming to Malta for the first time. One smile could mean a repeat visit. Over the years, we seem to have forgotten what a hospitable people we were in the past. Through complacency or neglect, we may have put the market at risk.

Now we have a chance to make amends. One smile is all that it takes.