In my last article, I wrote about why we cannot promote a quality destination with the chaotic situation these islands are in today. Last Wednesday I read how the Gozo Tourism Association is worried that businesses in Malta cannot find trained and committed staff. This is no news, this has been happening for years and is the fault of the industry itself that drove the local, committed, career seeker away into other industries or even to other countries. How can you appeal to the career seeking graduate in tourism if you offer pathetic salaries, conditions which would make Dickens cringe and even set-ups that are worse than the Victory Kitchen or the Doss House? What we really need to do is to take a good look at the standards of hospitality, courtesy and service on these islands - actually, we need to rebuild these qualities from their foundation.

This week I noticed how there is a need to ensure these standards and qualities in the public sector especially with frontliners namely the police, hospital staff and many institutions and financial service centres. There is a trend today of laissez-faire when it comes to common courtesy, service or hospitality. For many the attitude is to treat a client as a nuisance rather than the person paying your salary. But apart from the economic side of the matter, what about the ethical and moral side? How can we disregard common courtesy when we are responsible for ensuring that we deliver a full service and most importantly, a quality service. Why is it that so many people are showing signs of aggression? This is a country that did not experience lockdown for months on end during the two years of the pandemic; as one British PM said once about some situation in the UK: "You never had it so good" - no one here was ever forced to spend months cooped up in some small flatlet or bedsit in an urban jungle (the most may have been 14 days of quarantine); so why the aggresiveness, why the quick temper? How can we entice any tourist - quality or not - with that attitude? Quick answer: we cannot entice any tourist here of any quality; to do that we need to rebuild that sense of hospitality, courtesy and service; we must recognize Jan Carlson's - Moment of Truth - and act correctly; we must put aside all the pent-up hate and Mediterranean temperament that sometimes leads to some shocking language involving personal insults, blasphemies and altercations. In a few words we must come to our senses and realize that if we are still interested in welcoming visitors to these islands then we cannot walk around like some wild beast in search of a fight.

Rebuilding that sense of hospitality, courtesy and service simply means we have to act like civil beings, offer assisatance and information without the snarl and grimace (mind you, even the false smile can be a giveaway here, so watch it!)

Recommendations and Summary

1.     Think about how you would like to be treated when you visit a country - what you expect from the hosts at the airport, the hotel or the restaurant

2.     Put away that snarl and those idle thoughts that cloud your vision of correct service

3.     Remember that a visitor may not understand your language but the sounds and gesticulations give away the angry temper

4.     Make sure you rebuild this attitude with visitors and your neighbours - this is one way of inculcating these qualities in the country. Ignore these recommendations and the country is doomed

I sometimes wonder - am I writing for the converted? Are there any other persons who agree or disagree with me? I frequently meet people who read these articles - but these articles are not just there to be read on a lazy Sunday afternoon, they are there to sow the seeds of change from apathy to commitment - to make tourism an activity we can be proud of. Let me know what you think and how you feel about tourism.

Dr Julian Zarb is a researcher, local tourism planning consultant and an Academic at the University of Malta. He has also been appointed as an expert for the High Streets Task Force in the UK. His main area of research is community-based tourism and local tourism planning using the integrated approach