I have been visiting Malta and Gozo for over 12 years now. In fact, I used to spend all my free time on your great islands. Unfortunately, I have to say good-bye to all my Maltese friends now. While travelling to most European destinations costs between e50-100 return including taxes, for Malta I still have to forge out about e500. I will now save e400 per holiday and spend it in nice restaurants of other countries.

If Malta really depends that much on tourism, I do not understand why it tries to lock out so many travellers.

Having said this, I just read that Malta is ranking last in research and development in Europe. Considering that most research and development is being carried out by small and innovative Startups, I am not surprised about that statistics. How can such Startups establish business contacts abroad if travelling between Malta and the mainland Europe becomes impossible? Every first semester at university shows that cheap and good infrastructure is essential for a flourishing economy.

Is everybody just dreaming about Smart cities without realising that even such smart cities would need Startups to be successful?

Andreas Hellmann

Hannover

Germany