Lickers

The welcome afforded to Ryanair is a perfect example of our colonial mentality

There is only one way to describe the Ministry of Tourism, the MTA, MIA and the government of Malta. The hero salute given on the inauguration of the first Ryanair flight to Malta is a perfect example of the colonial mentality that we still have on this island: as if they are doing us a favour to operate to and from this country when it is us, from our taxes, that are subsiding their fares.
We all read about the pompous salute given to Ryanair last Wednesday. The atmosphere was that of a small village festa complete with a band and red-clad dancers. Not only that but on the initiative of the Malta Tourism Authority, female passengers were handed a carnation and the males received small honey rings. MIA chief executive Peter Bolech handed a bouquet of yellow flowers to the purser. How cute! This is the airline that is being subsidised by our taxes and we give them a hero’s welcome for giving them fiscal incentives. Not only that but I am informed that they were granted special status regarding many services at MIA including luggage handling. I am told that they have a record time in luggage handling precisely because their demands were met by MIA without any hitch.
And speaking of subsidies I cannot understand how Ryanair is operating without the official permit from Brussels. This is because if the government is subsidising Ryanair, it had to apply for permission from Brussels and I am informed that such permission has not been granted yet. The confusion that exists regarding enforcement of EU regulations is baffling and it seems that rules in the EU are there for the weak and not for the strong as otherwise how can one explain how this airline can get subsidy from the government without the government having the authorisation to do from Brussels? And how much money from our taxes are we giving Ryanair or is this too much to ask?
I cannot understand how the Malta Tourism Authority and the Minister for Tourism is regarding Ryanair as the salvation to our ailing tourism industry: an ailment that was predicted from day one that Dr Francis Zammit Dimech was appointed Minister. I have nothing personal against Dr Zammit Dimech but he is not the man for tourism: tourism is a dynamic sector that needs constant vigilance and business acuteness all the time.
Whilst having a coffee lately I was overhearing a conversation that was surely not conducted by labour supporters but it made a lot to sense: one of them was telling the others that the barometer of any government is tourism because it is the only sector wherein the private entrepreneurs invest 75% in it and a tiny share of 25% for the government to administer. He continued that if the government cannot handle that 25% than that government has a problem. And it has a problem indeed in the tourism sector because it is stepping its feet and leaving Minister Zammit Dimech for fear that we will be proved right.
But this is not a question of who is right or wrong: this is a national crisis and the sooner we get out of this mess the better. Treating Ryanair with golden gloves is not the solution to the problem. It seems that every time we are in a crisis we cling to an icon to come to our salvation: before the last general election the government and the tourism experts headed by MHRA assured us that with EU membership tourism will increase. But that was a lie and now that we are on the eve of another general election campaign, they have come up with the myth of low cost airlines. This is to give you an inkling of how the tourism sector is managed and the kind of people that manage it.
But what saddens me the most is that low cost airlines budgeted by foreign investors are treated with pomp and red carpets, whereas britishjet.com, a low cost airline pioneered by the Maltese Robby Borg has always been treated with disdain. No flowers or band or MIA or government officials greeted the launching of britishjet.com in Malta, not only that but all parliamentarians, left or right (or what is left of left or right) boycotted the official inauguration. I am not saying this because Robby is a client of mine but because it is the truth. Maltese do not like to see their fellow Maltese in Malta doing it. Not only that, but the Malta Tourism Authority and the Minister of Tourism still cannot digest that britishjet.com is a low cost carrier that also brings around 86,000 tourists to Malta and mention is only made of those low cost airlines that have no Maltese blood in them.
No wonder that at present so many Maltese are giving up on this island and investing abroad. Purchasing of property in Italy and Bulgaria, mainly, is going at full speed and investment in Libya and Dubai has now become the order of the day. Corinthia continues to spite us by boasting about its hotel investment overseas and sticking to what it has in Malta. This is the optimism that the Prime Minister so eloquently boasted about in his budget speech.
Some say that all this sudden export of Maltese money is because there is hidden money that the Maltese want to take out before we join the euro, whilst others say that this country has been hijacked by the same group of entrepreneurs and there is no room for them. I am sure that you have noticed the current trend of people buying property in Sicily that is taking place lately: a client of mine told me that it took him only 10 weeks to get a building permit, insurance quote here said LM5000 whereas over there it said LM1000, he is receiving EU money for growing olive trees and producing olive oil, and cost of living there is cheaper. It worked out cheaper to settle there and commute between Sicily and Malta than to live here.
I augur that Ryanair will not be hijacked by the health inspectors who have a habit of making the life of those who are not dear to them miserable. They can surpass airport security and board any aircraft to check if the food is in accordance with the Food Safety Act in Malta. Little will they bother to do this work when the passengers are still aground: if they want to be spiteful they can wait for the plane to be loaded with passengers and do the inspections and make a fool of themselves and of Malta and the tourism industry in front of these passengers. I am sure that the Ministry of Tourism and MIA and Omas, the security section, will not allow this to happen and I augur that there will not be such incidents.

The tourism industry, despite all the cries for help from all the stakeholders is still in disarray and the cure is not in low-cost airlines but in a change in the whole set up of MTA and the Ministry of Tourism. Tourism cannot continue to be run as if it were a normal government department: with political appointees whose first allegiance is to the Minister and not to the industry. We have set up an authority in order to give the impression that tourism is not run as a government department: but the change was only in the name and not in the mentality and the only people who succeeded where some of the board members who, I have to say, have made quite a handsome living indeed.
I cannot understand the agenda of the MHRA because if it honestly feels that a change in the chairmanship of MTA and the coming of low cost airlines are the cure to the ailing tourism industry, than no wonder that our tourism industry has reached rock bottom.