The news, last week, that Malta International Airport has updated upwards its predictions regarding passenger flow for the rest of the year is very good news for Malta.

Pity it was buried in most papers and news bulletins.

MIA, readers may possibly remember, had begun the year without predicting any increase over last year’s passenger flow. That could have been because last year saw a huge 12.8% increase in passenger flow over the previous year. It could also be that MIA saw dark clouds on the horizon and acted cautiously.

Then, as the year developed, passenger figures continued to improve on last year. This happened against the background of what was taking place in Libya when some Cassandras here said the proximity of Libya to Malta would scare people away.

Without taking into account the thousands rescued from Libya who continued their journey to their home through MIA, passenger movements for the first half year showed a 12.7% increase over the 2010 figures. MIA thus updated its prediction to a 3.2% increase for this year.

Now it has again updated that prediction upwards to forecast ‘at least’ a 4.5% increase in passenger figures this year.

There is no doubt that Malta is succeeding in retaining, even improving, its attractiveness as a tourist destination.

One of the reasons, it was said at the time, for MIA being cautious as to this year’s figures was also due to fears about Air Malta’s future plans. Although to date we still do not have a coherent plan for the national airline, and the airline itself has divested itself of two of its planes, its figures still look good and it remains a strong player in Malta’s tourism.

But surely the improved figures backing MIA’s updated predictions have to do with the advent of low-cost airlines which have given Malta’s tourism a huge boost over the past years.

The announcement, abroad but not in Malta, that Ryanair will be flying between Malta and the Polish city of Wroclaw as from next summer, is yet another welcome news. Poland with a market as big as Spain has the ability to become a key market for Malta. And for Poles in a very cold climate, Malta’s warm all-season weather is far more attractive than it would be in Spain.

Obviously, this is no time to sit back and relax. The world’s and Europe’s crisis looks like going from bad to worse, and a double-dip recession now looks very likely, so our core markets may shrivel up and affect the tourism figures to Malta.

We still need to spruce up our tourism offer. Just to mention one issue, all the tourists who were kept waiting for Arriva buses in sweltering heat all through summer, must not have gone home and praised Malta. The people tourists normally come in contact with, from karozzin owners to taxi drivers, to waiters and chambermaids, are crucial to how tourists perceive Malta. The amount of rubbish strewn around and construction activity going about practically everywhere can also detract from our attractiveness. As would the high prices many times charged.

We must realise we can all, individually, kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Against all predictions, we have managed not just to hold on to our tourist figures but also to increase them in very difficult circumstances. However, the hospitality sector is still not out of the troubles and, even if it were, all the work that has gone into getting more people to Malta cannot be allowed to be betrayed by the greediness of the few.