Tourism is the most important economic sector in Malta.

At the same time, one questions whether we are doing enough to safeguard it, or to ensure that we are offering the best product possible. We must also ask whether locals are being made to suffer due to some decisions that were taken just for the sake of some establishments trying to rake in as much money as they can from tourists.

We pack our pedestrian areas and walkways with tables and chairs of restaurants, sometimes barely leaving room for people to walk comfortably. Moderation is the key.

We opt to turn our very own UNESCO Heritage capital city into a night life destination, to the detriment of residents. There are areas in the country that are already designated for such activity. While Valletta should never be a silent city like it once was, things have now just gone too far when allowing loud music till 1am.

We allowed some beach operators to take over certain beaches, only taking action after an activist group had to take matters into its own hands – we are here referring to Comino.

We have some venues around the country that play music so loud they disturb residents at night far, far away.

We have streets filled with dust from incomplete construction sites. We have garbage bags left on the side of the road until late morning in some localities, creating a slum-like atmosphere.

We have towns, villages and cities looking like a hotchpotch of ugly modern architecture, given our Planning Authority’s utter failure to keep the island looking nice – with a few exceptions like Valletta and Mdina for instance still retaining their original charm.

On the other hand, we have many great hotels, restaurants catering for different types of tourists, some great events organised for tourists looking for different types of entertainment, many museums.

In short, the country has its pros and cons. But if Malta wants to make a leap in tourism quality, then we need to tackle the cons.

Firstly, we need to protect our heritage areas more. Secondly, we need to sort out the overall look of Malta. We need laws and regulations governing how our streets should look, creating more uniformity in the design of buildings along the same street, rather than a blast of different ugly designs and colours.

We need to ensure that garbage is picked up early, and not left on the street or on pavements. Construction sites must also be better monitored for dust.

In terms of tables and chairs in pedestrian areas, we must ensure that our pavements and pedestrian areas are not too overcrowded by them.

We also need to keep our eye on the future. We’ve spoken before about Malta needing to target quality tourists rather than quantity. Realistically speaking, if too many tourists come to the island, would they enjoy it? Think about it, would you enjoy going to an overcrowded beach? Would you enjoy over packed public transport? We should aim for smaller numbers of tourists with more spending power, and to achieve that, we all need to, collectively, change the way we operate and improve the quality of our tourism product. In addition, with prices rising, can we really afford not to do this? Would the mass tourists continue coming to Malta, if prices continue to rise as they have been? We need to shift focus.