The landing of the first ever Air France scheduled flight to Malta last Sunday heralds a new era for the tourism industry in general, and particularly for the sector concerning arrivals from France.

A direct flight from Toulouse opens the way for more French tourists to visit Malta and, why not, for more Maltese travellers to visit this lovely part of France.

The tourism industry has flourished in recent times, with records achieved in four of the last five years – and this in spite of all the economic turmoil that was registered in Europe in the same timeframe.

Still, it is a volatile industry – as we all well know – and it needs to be maintained and enhanced for the results to improve.

It is enough to say that the start of this year has seen a nearly 6% drop in arrivals in the first two months, a clear signal that the negative economic effects have started to hit. Tourism Minister Mario de Marco predicted this in the comments he gave to the media when he had spoken about the 2011 records. Therefore, the slump that we are experiencing should not have taken us by surprise.

However, every effort should be made to contain the slowdown as much as possible so that its impact on the tourism industry – and particularly the stakeholders – would be minimal.

Increasing the number of destinations available for direct flights to and from Malta is a step in the right direction. The advent of low-cost carriers has led to a substantial rise in the number of airports fed from Luqa, and now that we have national carriers such as Air France also improving Malta’s connectivity, we are sure that these efforts will bear fruit.

The number of French tourists visiting Malta has shot up from 73,000 in 2007 to 102,000 last year, and having two extra flights per week from Toulouse will go a long way to add on to those numbers.

The marketing campaign that the Malta Tourism Authority has embarked upon in France will help make Malta more attractive to the French. It must be remembered that Toulouse is the fourth French destination that will be served from Malta, as Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Marseille are already linked to here.

That the French airline has also chosen Air Malta as its preferred partner in ground handling operations will also serve as a boost to the national airline.