Only a year ago, it was all doom and gloom for the tourism industry.

The number of tourists coming over to Malta was going down, they were not spending enough money, hotels had many empty rooms and the country was not competing well with its direct adversaries in the sector.

There were calls, from many quarters, for Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech to resign, as it was felt that not much was being done to improve the situation.

Dr Zammit Dimech held on, taking most of the blame for the difficult time one of the main pillars of the economy was facing.

Today, things have changed. Only last week, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association admitted that there has been a huge turnaround in the industry in what is relatively a short time. MHRA president Josef Formosa Gauci described it as an “amazing change”.

And, although Dr Zammit Dimech was behind certain decisions that were taken which had a favourable impact on the industry, leading to the massive turnaround, he is not getting the credit that he deserves. But at least the calls for his resignation have stopped.

The introduction of low-cost carriers was probably the main factor behind the upsurge in the tourism industry. It was a tough decision, as after all the interests of Malta’s own national airline, Air Malta, had to be safeguarded, but in the end low-cost carries have been instrumental in bringing over more tourists to Malta, and more tourists brought in more money.

Secondly, the Malta Tourism Authority, under chairman Sam Mifsud, understood that changes needed to be made in the marketing strategy for Malta to remain attractive. For one thing, it was realised that more and more tourists are not depending on tour operators to travel, but prefer the faster and less expensive online booking concept. With this in mind, Malta’s promotion abroad is targeting the individual traveller.

Of course, this does not mean that we can all sit back and relax. Tourism is a highly volatile industry that needs constant attention, and therefore all stakeholders must continue working hand in hand to maintain, and possible improve, the momentum that has been picked up this year.

What must be kept in mind as well is that there are still problems in the industry that need to be seen to. For example, while it is encouraging that the number of foreign students coming over to Malta to learn English is on the increase, the negative effect that this could have on other sectors of the industry should not be allowed to push other tourists away.

Another problem that tourists complain about – and locals do so too – is that Malta seems to be a permanent building site. Regulations to reduce noise and inconvenience levels have been introduced but it seems that they are not enough, or perhaps they are not being implemented well.

The level of service offered to our visitors must always be tops, and it is always sad to hear of tourists who criticise Malta and the Maltese. Until last month, the MTA had received 84 complaints against hotels in relation to poor accommodation. This number seems insignificant when compared to the thousands of tourists who visit Malta, but at the same time it is not healthy to have visitors having to change hotels because they are not pleased with the service offered.

All in all, Malta has managed to turn around a situation that was hitting us hard, considering that so many families depend on the industry. Now that we have turned the corner, we must continue working hard to keep up, possibly improve, on the results that we have achieved during 2007.