This time, every year, we are made to watch news clips of the events that happened both locally as well as internationally throughout the past twelve months – apart from acting as a nostalgic trip into the past by way of a set of historical panoramas I always feel that there is not much that we can learn from these reviews except to note just how history does have a way of repeating itself!
On the other hand, when we consider the tourism industry this tends to be more volatile because we are dealing with people’s emotions and social habits. When people feel threatened by economic or security restrictions their first act of submission is manifested in the holiday budget : “Perhaps we can drive down to the coast at home and spend some time visiting the local sites!” or “Let us go away for a weekend rather than the week!” or even the choice of the destination: “ I would much rather go to Crete this year, it’s cheaper and we enjoyed the food and entertainment more there!” I wonder how many people are already asking these questions and making their plans after musing over those statements?
These trends certainly show that we cannot review the tourism industry in terms of its quantitative results alone; certainly if we do that for the Maltese Islands then we certainly have an uphill struggle analyzing the statistics year-on-year since the figures hardly show any extravagant increases or decreases (in my opinion, these statistics merely help the party in opposition to pass destructive comments about strategies and policies adopted for this socio-economic activity). We need to be more scientific in our analysis here, we need to understand the profile of our visitors, the aspect of value which they place on the experience during their stay – and I am not just referring to the economic values here, I am referring to the more covert moral values, We need to understand just what the term “marketing” actually means here, it is not about spending an exorbitant amount on promotion overseas , nor is it simply finding the best medium to use for that promotion – it is , rather, about developing an innovative but characteristic product which is unique and reflects the traditional image of Malta and Gozo , whether we are referring to those sun and sea holidays where one unique aspect could be the picturesque bays and inlets that are more personal than the vast swathes of sands of the larger Mediterranean destinations or whether we are referring to eco holidays and experiences of a more cultural tendency where the visitor is definitely the type of person who chooses the places to which he or she could travel based on the strength of the indigenous characteristics of these countries.
When we are referring to the marketing process we should actually be focussing on creating a destination where the experience is different to the competition; we cannot expect to have much success in building a marketing strategy or promoting a destination purely on aspects that one finds in other destinations (especially where those destinations have economies of scale!).
In all truth, if i had to review the tourism activity for 2009 I would say we need to build on our value for money experiences as unique selling propositions that are characteristic of our culture, history and traditions and we should also build on the aspect of diversity in the region – we cannot create products that have been initiated in other destinations, they now belong to that location – we have to seek out our own attractions and make them our own.
During this coming year let us ponder on these facts – it is up to the industry practioners and all of us to make these islands an interesting and attractive destination that adds value to the Mediterranean product.
