We’re close to Easter and anyone who is a keen observer has already noticed that the number of tourists on our shores is getting bigger.

For two years, the tourism industry has suffered tremendously because of the Covid-19 pandemic. With restrictions in place to curb the spread of the virus, and also because of personal fears, many chose not to travel.

This inevitably had an effect on one of the mainstays of our economy. Hotels remained empty for many weeks, if not months, and it was only thanks to the assistance of the government that they survived. Others took the opportunity to carry out some refurbishment work, but it was a great risk as they did not know if and when the industry would have picked up.

All other ancillary services that tourists use when they visit Malta, including transport, were negatively affected. Museums registered huge drops in attendance, restaurants – when they were allowed to open – saw a reduction in the number of clients, and retail outlets, particularly those in localities which normally attract tourists, recorded a decline in sales.

It will take us some years to get back to pre-pandemic levels, but at least the tourism industry is now experiencing a surge. The years 2020 and 2021 will be remembered as a bleak period, and it is hoped that 2022 will be seen as the start of the recovery.

Hotels are reporting an increase in the number of bookings, particularly for the summer months, and this indicates that people are picking up their old routine. The easing of restrictions has encouraged travellers, with hoteliers insisting that all rules relating to Covid are lifted.

One issue that hotels need to solve is in the recruitment sector. In the heavy Covid months, many hotels lost employees who were not replaced so as to reduce costs. But now that hotels are seeing a rise in bookings they need to employ more people, and this is not an easy task. Many of those employees who did not remain on the hotel books were foreigners who returned to their country.

All this is happening while the number of people who test positive to Covid remains high, as is the number of active cases. It seems that the new philosophy is not to curb these numbers, but to “learn to live” with the virus is the same way we live with the presence of other diseases. The government continues to insist that there is no stress on the medical services, and although the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses says otherwise, the government is moving along with its roadmap towards “normality”.

This “normality” also means that the health authorities are no longer using their social media pages to inform the public about the daily cases, with the media having to resort to other ways to get the updates.

While one understands this “normalisation” exercise, on the other hand the government is showing little care to families who have lost and continue to lose their loved ones because of Covid, and individuals who have been unable to overcome their traumatic experience with the virus.