All too often, the media accuses both political parties of sniping at each other and spinning material to their own ends. In a year of strife, uncertainty, and conflict, the last thing most people wanted was to have two parties constantly at each other’s throats. But that has been the pattern. It has become a noticeable trend over the past year. Both parties are constantly engaged in a media sparring war and their weapon of choice is the ‘dreaded’ press release.

It is not uncommon to see exchanges of two, three, four and five press releases, most notably after the Sunday political meetings which are, like anywhere else in the world, more of a forum for rhetoric rather than hard policy.

Sometimes, these exchanges are more akin to bickering than anything else, but sometimes they do contain a valid point or two. One such occasion was yesterday when parliamentary secretary for tourism, Mario de Marco delivered a press conference to give a breakdown of Malta’s tourism performance. Essentially, the findings were that more tourists had visited Malta and stayed longer, spending more money. There was also a hint of worry; Dr de Marco said that accessibility remained a problem even though more routes were being created to Malta. It is not hard to see what he was meaning. Air Malta remains one of the biggest challenges that the country faces.

One has to admit that in a world where it is becoming harder and harder to attract tourists, Malta seems to be doing something right. People keep coming and many of them return. The island is sprucing itself up and finally we are beginning to appreciate and to conserve our heritage. Our manners still leave a lot to be desired on occasion, but we are still regarded as a friendly bunch who do enjoy entertaining guests.

The Opposition’s spokesman on the subject, Gavin Gulia, also made an interesting observation. We might be doing well in terms of numbers and ‘raw’ cash, but he argues that there is another indicator of how well, or not, the sector is doing.

Dr Gulia compared figures; we will not go into the workings of them. But his argument is simple. More tourists might be coming in to spend more, but that does not make up for the cost it is to entertain each one.

He is correct. He says that while expenditure has increased, the profits returned are lower than what they used to be because inflation and costs have increased at a greater rate. He also argues that in turn, workers are getting a smaller slice of the pie. Again he is correct. In essence, the arguments of both politicians are correct, but can’t we get to the crux of the matter for once?

Malta has done well to increase its share of tourists, but in an increasingly competitive and expensive world, we need to do more to improve our ‘efficiency’ in terms of maximising profits and distributing them fairly between the government in terms of tax, the company in terms of profits and the workers in terms of salaries and wages.

Tourism is always going to be a pillar of the Maltese economy. And in this instance it was healthy to see the two parties putting forward valid arguments, but we are still one stop short. Both should have acknowledged the other’s argument from the outset in their thinking. Perhaps they had, and perhaps Maltese politics prevents them from doing so. Let us hope that 2012 will bring us more visitors and that we can improve our performance in terms of profits and wages too.