It has been said over and over again that the financial crisis that has gripped the world will not be affecting Malta directly. Yet it would be puerile to believe that the ripple effects of such a situation will not adversely hit the Maltese economy – in the short-term too.

For one thing, with people saving money for a rainy day, the first things they will eliminate from their list of expenses are those things that they can do without – and one of them is travelling.

And the negative feeling is already seeping through, as could be seen by the comments made and the reports presented during an activity organised by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association last Thursday.

While pointing out that the number of tourists from established markets like the United Kingdom and France have declined and that increases registered from other markets did not trickle down to the hotel industry, the hoteliers expressed concern about their poor predictions for the first quarter of next year.

A staggering 73 per cent of five-star hotels think there will be a drop in occupancy levels, which will follow the poorer results achieved over the past months. In fact, five-star hotels reported a decline of 11.8 per cent in occupancy levels. Even hotels in the four-star and three-star category have experienced a slowdown and are predicting that things will not get better in the first three months of 2009.

It is common knowledge that the tourism industry is one of the backbones of the local economy, and it is a pity that when it appeared that the sector was picking up after a couple of years of poorer performances, once again it will have to face another challenge.

As said earlier, people will cut down on their travel expenses and have cheaper holidays, and being an island does not help. Many Europeans will in fact opt to take their vacations closer to home, perhaps taking trains or simply driving to their destinations, which means that Malta will be losing out.

This also goes for the conference market. Big companies who in the past used to take their employees to in-house conferences abroad will now seek to cut their costs by holding the same activities in hotels or halls within the country in which they operate.

It is with this in mind that the government, through the Malta Tourism Authority, will have to undertake a stronger campaign to promote Malta on the international market. Added to this, there must also be a greater effort to open up more airline routes so as to make travelling to Malta much easier.

Without ignoring the needs to maintain the national airline, Air Malta, agreements with other low-cost airlines to add to those who are already flying here should be considered and encouraged.

But this is not all. As MHRA president Kevin Decesare pointed out, the overall product that Malta has to offer must be improved to meet the expectations visitors have when they come to Malta. This means better infrastructure (read roads) and better services, including public transport, which is probably the weakest link in the chain of the tourist industry. In this sense, the government’s plans to overhaul the public transport system are most welcome.

The hotels themselves have to do their part too. Even they have a service to provide, and it must be top quality with each and every tourist that stays at least one night in one of their rooms. It is a known fact that the best promotions comes by word of mouth, and any negative publicity Malta gets through negative experiences that are recounted in newspapers and magazines could push people away from the country.