When the buses at last get to Ċirkewwa, tourists getting off are met by a bevy of young people, most of them girls, most of them foreign, urging them to take a boat trip to Comino.

These sale representatives crowd the doors of the bus, making it impossible for people to get out.

Having forced past these insistent sales people, tourists and Maltese trying to get out of the sun and into the temporary tent to wait for the ship then find other representatives obstructing their way. But it’s not over, as they then find even more sales sharks mingling with the people inside the tent.

This is then replicated on the other side of the channel, on arrival in Gozo. This time, maybe unwittingly, Arriva is an accomplice. For some reason that remained unexplained, there was a girl selling tickets for the buses. But she was selling the tickets inside the bus, rather than outside it. The driver stood behind, only selling tickets to the few Maltese.

This arrangement does not make sense. Given that for some strange reason Arriva tickets bought in Malta are not valid in Gozo and vice-versa, it would make far more sense for the two, the driver and the girl selling tickets, to do so concurrently, helping each other.

Maybe a reader might think this is petty. But the result of this confusion and time-dragging procedure is that a crowd gathers waiting to get on the bus. Taxi drivers can then wade into the crowd and offer what they claim are cheap taxi fares.

Most tourists disregard their insistent pleas but people get upset at such an ambush. Given the crowd waiting to get on the bus, the taxi drivers get into close personal contact with their targets, adding to the latter’s discomfort.

There was no policeman to be seen, nor any Transport Malta official as there used to be till some time ago, to put a stop to such antics and to stop taxi drivers from harassing people.

Back to the other end, Ċirkewwa. Maybe ETC enforcement officers could conduct a raid or two there and see how many of these touts have permits. Then action could be levied not just against them, who after all may be lengthening their stay in Malta by earning commission from selling a boat trip to Comino or two, but also against the boat trip owners themselves for ‘employing’ such people. This is all being done in broad daylight, seen by all, and yet people just don’t ‘notice’.

MTA should also get in on the act and enforce order. That way, tourists who come to Malta (and Gozo) to rest, will not be hassled and put under pressure by hucksters and chancers of this kind.