I am a regular tourist and I do not remember the 'Mintoff years'. However, I find that, in far too many areas, dealing with Maltese officialdom is like trying to swim through treacle. Many it seems do not really want their jobs and those that do seem to make life as difficult as possible for their own countrymen and tourists – from the past miserable immigration staff to shop assistants who don’t really want to stop their conversations to serve you and treat you as an inconvenience to their day, to the alleged hunters that kill anything, cannot be controlled and have a ‘self only’ mentality,

Malta has a long way to go to catch up with the real and modern world. I used to think this was sweet until I experienced some examples over the many years that I have holidayed there.

Arriva never really stood a chance against such a force or uncaring, unworkable and disinterested brick walls of indifference. Left to its own devices, I believe the company could have done a great job, but it had to be ‘controlled’ by Maltese ‘efficiency’, which meant it really never stood a chance.

Malta had the chance of an improved bus service, but wrecked it by its own internal incompetence. The caring attitude to Maltese public transport can be judged by what seems to be an almost universally hated previous system of greed and indifference, especially by the owners and drivers, which was left to fester for so long. I have seen this malaise creeping into the Maltese Arriva employees, still phoning, still smoking, still not always caring – especially when pulling away before elderly people have had the chance to sit down – assuming there was a seat available – and still not offering the standard of customer service that Arriva would have needed to stand a chance.

Malta will never be able to offer a joined-up service for anything until the Maltese attitude changes, which is a pity. You have a beautiful picturesque island, but you cannot maintain it, you cannot stop people dumping rubbish anywhere they like, you cannot provide efficient, joined-up services and on my last visit you couldn’t even provide a bus timetable without me having to traipse around several locations to get what many tourists would need. You also flouted EU rules by charging tourist double the residents’ fares.

There are, however, many wonderful ordinary Maltese people who are friendly, helpful and will go out of their way to do a kindness for anyone. If only that approach could be spread to include officialdom and service industries, but I fear this won’t happen until a more robust approach is taken to dealing with so many issues that hold Malta back from the position it should have with all its benefits, which are not always looked after and used to the best effect.

Finally, it would be interesting to know what percentage of visitors are put off by some of these problems and never return. I know there are many who return to Malta regularly and I am one of them, but even I am getting weary of some issues. I know that, sometimes, tourism in Malta grows rather well, but think how much better it could be if life in Malta was more organised and efficient. It is so much easier to re-welcome a previous tourist than having to recruit a new one.

Farewell Arriva; I, for one, as a tourist, will miss you.

B.J. Simmons

BIRCHINGTON

KENT, UK