Editorial | Wednesday, 10 September 2008

Outbound travel: Enrichment or environmental decay?

Considering the increase in low cost carrier brands operating in Malta over the past year, the introduction of new routes and the more-than-ever competitive prices for air travel, an increase of 3.5 per cent in outbound travel this year falls short of being impressive. One would have expected at least triple this improvement.
However, if one had to take a close look at the figures published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) yesterday, there is more to the data than meets the eye. For instance, despite all the hype on low-cost carriers (LCCs), sea travel grew by 5.7 per cent this July (when compared to July last year), witnessing a stronger growth than the 3.5 per cent for air travel over the same period. Whether this is attributable to a possible increase in Mediterranean cruises departing from Malta, to the success of sea travel operators in re-popularising the service, or to any other reason is hard to tell. There are more peculiarities. Outbound travel in general saw a slump of 1.3 per cent for males this July when compared to the previous, and a staggering improvement of 9.5 per cent for females. Even on a cumulative basis, this year, 9.8 per cent more females travelled from Malta, compared to a 3.5 per cent improvement among males. This is odd, but one cannot just attribute the cause of such figures to facile conclusions. But still, outbound travel trends need to be studied, not only to satisfy public curiosity, but also to see how the country can gain.
The pressure exerted on government to allow LCCs to operate on Maltese routes had mainly come from tourism key-players, and the reason why government gave in to the pressure was to boost inbound tourism figures, which by the end of summer 2006 were both abysmal and inexcusable.
Inexcusable was also the state of affairs with the lack of travel experience most Maltese youths had, and to some extent still have. A two-day trip to London just to buy shoes, eat take-away Chinese food and walk up and down Oxford Street is far from proper travel experience. Shoes can be bought from local stores or online, a walk can be taken anywhere in Malta (and safely too), and the Yellow Pages features 15 entries for home delivery restaurants, which is not much, but most of them prepare Chinese food. Frivolous air travel only adds to the environmental cost consumers end up paying in electricity surcharge, food prices and fuel.
Youths are now presented with the opportunity to travel at ridiculous prices. Most Maltese have friends living abroad, and many get their accommodation sorted for free. With careful spending, a weekend abroad may end up costing less than a weekend in Gozo. So why not promote air travel as an affordable educational experience? Air travel may be used as a source of personal development, both in terms of getting in touch with other cultures as well as to gain a feel of life beyond Maltese shores.
Progressive employers will not only look at aptitudes but also at attitudes. Personal development is to be obtained through healthy experiences, and proper travel may very well be one of them.
If we are to improve efficiency in this country, we need to drive a mentality change among our workforce, and one way of doing this is for government to encourage positive and educational experiences. If we are to use travel opportunities to motivate such change, then why not promote a visit to the Uffizi in Tuscany rather than a weekend’s reclusion at some cheap Sicilian resort; a visit to the Modern Tate rather than shoe-shopping in Oxford street; the “literary pub-crawl” in Dublin rather than an evening of fear and loathing in Amsterdam?
While our Genoese counterparts may, at any time, visit France or Spain with a full petrol tank, all we can do with that is a 360-degree tour round the island, seeing the same places, eating at the same restaurants and meeting the same people. Our detachment from other countries has so far helped to instil a typical islander culture whose insular traits lead to pigeonholing, intolerance and gossip: neither of which contribute to fresh ideas, harmonised working environments and adaptation to change.
Government must take the NSO figures on outbound travel and use them as a basis to interpret trends and discern what percentage of travel is contributing to a change in mentality and what other percentage is simply adding to environmental decay. Perhaps it would then be the Minister of Education and Culture’s turn to find ways of promoting how to make best use of a holiday, across children and youths of all ages. Once that is sorted, she would very much deserve a holiday herself.