The word "quality" has featured a lot in discussions about significant topics concerning the country's direction.  Be it the economy, jobs, or tourism - everybody seems to agree that it is quality that the country should be pursuing.

Indeed it's an area where the government and the major industry stakeholders also seem to agree on.

Take tourism, for example.  Prime Minister Robert Abela as far back as October 2023 started talking about the need for quality tourism, and this week he spoke at an event where he was quite unequivocal in where his beliefs stand: "We cannot keep on talking in terms of an increase in the number of tourists but look towards quality. We need to make a choice that favours the development of quality. We cannot say no for every development but rather we must look to aim for quality tourism which is the fruition of prudent, quality investment."

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association over the summer reflected these exact sentiments. "Being a small country, we have to get the tourists that contribute the most to the economy. We cannot take any more tourists, as it will lead to even more problems than we have right now. We really need to look at the numbers and the profile now, seeing if it fits with our vision for the economy," its President Tony Zahra told members at an event.

The economy and job market is another similar area.  The government has said that it wants to move towards an economy based around quality of life and quality jobs, in quality high-value sectors.  The major stakeholders like the Malta Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of SMEs, and the Malta Employers Association all agree.

Yet with all this talk about quality this, and quality that - who is actually going to make it come to fruition?  Talk is cheap, after all, and we've heard plenty of it.  But action is what counts.

That action has to come from all areas.  The government cannot simply say it wants quality tourism, but then do very little in order to actually attract it, and stakeholders cannot insist for the same while still applying for more and more and more hotels - when a carrying capacity back in 2022 showed that Malta needs to double its tourist intake in order to fill 80% of the beds that existed or were projected to exist at the time.

Likewise on the economic front: stakeholders cannot continually speak about improving job quality and improving the labour market but then continue to prefer importing a myriad of Third Country Nationals so that they can be paid a pittance which no local worker will accept.

The government likewise cannot continue to prioritise sectors which over-import Third Country Nationals and flood the job market with low quality work.  Action taken to ban new registrations of TCNs in certain sectors, such as in taxis, based on evidence (which, admittedly, has not been published) that the industry was saturated is a step forward in this regard.

But sectors so far are still treated like a numbers game - and no numbers game will ever lead to the quality that everyone says that they are seeking.