A close examination of MIA passenger movements in November, following the introduction of Ryanair flights, shows it is still too early to see whether the entry of the low cost airline did in fact turn around the tourism arrivals slump.

A close examination of the figures could also be a cool shower on the euphoria made in statements last weekend (before the figures were posted on MIA’s website).

First of all, the rather elementary mistakes made in the claims: the number of people who departed from MIA in November was 87,586, a 5.2 per cent increase, while the number of people who arrived at MIA stood at 77,943 – a 5.4 per cent increase. The 87,000 figure is far lower from the 102,000 who departed from MIA in November 1999.

Secondly, the tourists from Britain are still 1.5 per cent lower than last year, while the main increases came from the Middle East (40 per cent increase), mainland Italy (26.1 per cent) and Germany (15.5 per cent).

Passengers from Luton, from where Ryanair flights depart, totalled 8,224 (not 5,502), so one must conclude that Ryanair stemmed the decline of traffic from the UK which had seen a 7.5 per cent decrease in October.

Meanwhile, a strategy plan for tourism was unveiled by the government last week. Commenting on this document, GRTU’s Philip Fenech said the input of the members of the consultative group, including the GRTU representatives, can be seen in the document, together with fresh input by the government and other organisations.

Now that the plan has been drawn up, Mr Fenech said, no time must be lost to start implementing it. We must get going and recover the lost ground, Mr Fenech said. A recovery is long overdue and a brisk implementation may help avoid further casualties.