Christmas is only three days away and business owners are keeping their fingers crossed that the mad rush of last-minute Christmas shopping will again prevail, GRTU director-general Vince Farrugia told The Malta Independent shortly after the chamber concluded a telephone survey with a sample representation of its members.

The growing trend of last-minute shopping, as well as last-minute reservations for parties, lunches and dinners, is certainly keeping business owners on their toes.

Mr Farrugia expressed satisfaction that the government had accepted the GRTU’s suggestion to provide free public transport services between today and Monday.

Free bus services should encourage people to go to different places, not just Valletta and Sliema.

“Our idea was to encourage families to go out, simply hop onto a bus for free and go wherever they please,” said Mr Farrugia.

He said it was good that the Super 5 jackpot was won early in the Christmas season and Christmas shopping picked up from 13 December onwards.

“Somehow, however, it began to slow down again towards the middle of this week. Many people received their pay cheques today (Friday) and that seems to have left quite a good effect on business, even though there was still no big surge.”

He said the GRTU had high hopes for business for the last couple of days before Christmas, when the free bus service system will be in place.

There was also not much of a big push as regards restaurant and party bookings, said Mr Farrugia, adding that this could also be attributed to the so-called “last-minute decisions” trend.

The situation was similar last year, both on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, as last minute bookings kept business owners on edge until possibly that same evening.

As for business that was not as fast as retailers would have liked it to be over the past two weeks, the GRTU director-general said the rainy weather did not help.

On a positive note however, Mr Farrugia said it was clear that business was better in shopping centres where businesses made a bigger effort to market themselves and provide entertainment to customers while they shop.

Asked whether he believed the phenomenon of online shopping had an effect on traditional businesses, Mr Farrugia said this had only a marginal impact.

Online shopping may be popular, but it seems that the Maltese prefer traditional Christmas shopping, he said.