The reason why the Malta Labour Party gives tourism such a high profile in its economic planning is because we happen to be one of the most dependent Mediterranean destinations on tourism, as well as due to the fact that this is the economic sector that can engineer the quickest turnaround in our economic fortunes, given its multiplier effect and various ancillary services and activities.

The MLP policy document was well received by constituted bodies and party delegates alike because it was practical, down to earth and realisable. We did not set ourselves any targets or objectives that were beyond our reach.

Perhaps, even more importantly, the document showed our strong political will to reposition tourism in our economic planning agenda, particularly given our commitment to fuel economic growth once returned to office.

At the time of writing there are various issues that are still crying out to be addressed, foremost of which is the low cost airlines issue.

Without exercising this option, Malta is not getting its share of a market which increasingly includes a growing amount of tourists opting for short break vacations.

It is true that low cost airlines usually operate from secondary airports – which we do not have – but a clear-cut policy on the issue is long overdue.

Many people tend to associate low cost airlines with low budget tourists. This is not the case since many of them prefer to spend less on flights and more on hotels and restaurants. At the same time the low cost airline option needs to be also addressed and assessed in terms of its impact on the national carrier, Air Malta.

The linkage between tourism and the environment is practically non-existent. For this reason it was more than opportune that Labour chose to tackle these two topical subjects together in the same annual general conference.

The recent news that MIA were to increase our airport landing charges shows how badly the government had negotiated the privatisation deal because, as a consequence of this decision, MIA now has the right to charge carriers utilising its services increases in line with last year’s inflation rate.

People in the know seem to be complaining that we are experiencing one of the worst January-March periods of the last seven years, while a number of tour operators have been known to have cancelled their flights to Malta this winter.

It is high time that we focused more on direct internet bookings for hotels rather than continuing to remain at the mercy of tour operators.

Regarding the rebranding exercise, this is healthy in itself but it should go hand in hand with our product enhancement and improvement because otherwise it would be tantamount to just another marketing exercise.

I personally consider conference and incentive travel to be our salvation, especially for our upmarket hotels.

While I fully support Labour’s policy in favour of a very limited number of new strategically located golf courses, I am still somewhat surprised that the government does not seem to have carried out any serious studies on the real amount of tourists who are likely to choose Malta for golf, particularly given the strong competition in North Africa – Tunisia and Morocco – and other neighbouring destinations as Portugal.

When talking of product improvement we tend to think only in terms of taxi services – which need to improve drastically – and restaurant services – which need to revise their pricing policies. But there is more to it than that.

We need better regulation of our building industry as well as accelerated beach improvement. When it comes to fish farms there seems to be general consensus – except for the operators themselves – that they need to be relocated further out from the coast to avoid sea pollution of swimming areas.

Even when it comes to speedboats and sea craft, there is more room for better regulation.

The clean-up campaign of the country needs to be an ongoing exercise and not something carried out on a strictly ad hoc basis just because CHOGM or something else happens to be organised at the time.

We also need better public transport and a greater emphasis on more authentic local food. But the major shortcoming is the almost total lack of law enforcement to control abuses.

Although there was some talk of this issue in the past I do not think that those linked to the tourism sector are being sufficiently trained. By tourism linked personnel I do not have only restaurant and hotel business staff in mind but also those who provide various tourism linked ancillary services.

We need to market ourselves as an all season destination the way Cyprus has been doing this winter on British TV. Let us hope that the proposed CNN adverts will plug this gap.

We have to exploit Libya’s tourism development potential diligently otherwise we will end up emarginated. I say so because I have already seen expensive brochures of luxury cruises which are mainly targeted at Libya and which are relying on a mere short stop in Malta just to enable their patrons to catch a flight back to the UK without having spent any adequate time – or money – on our island.

I am fully in favour of diversification of our overseas markets but as things seem to be working out we seem to be opting more for fragmentation than diversification.

It would be interesting to find out whether MTA is targeting percentage arrivals from various destinations.

It is sad that a number of entrepreneurs have or are contemplating moving out of tourism into the real estate sector.

We badly need a strategic plan that carries specifically measurable targets.

Earlier on I mentioned internet bookings. We need to rely on more visible internet and interactive sites.

Although CHOGM was a prestigious event in its own right, as the MHRA pointed out hotels and restaurants did not benefit from it as much as they expected.

Arguably, the money spent on CHOGM would have been better spent on direct tourism marketing, given that many CHOGM member countries are far worse off economically than we are, particularly in terms of GDP per capita. While recommending that better use of our embassies should be made in promoting tourism in a more cost effective manner – as is the case with our investment promotion drive from the industrial point of view – I feel that we should seriously study why our market share in our core markets has dipped in recent years, particularly between 1999 and 2004.

The MTA’s first decision under its new CEO was to introduce new uniforms. I think what they should have done with a greater sense of priority is get their act together as I hope will be the case now that they have streamlined and redesigned the structure of their organisation.

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Leo Brincat is the main opposition spokesman for Foreign Affairs and IT.