Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1440009
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 JANUARY 2022 INTERVIEW Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt You can't fool around with science 2021 seems to have ended on a particu- larly ominous note: for the economy in general, but for tourism in particular. Yet your own recent statements on the subject have sounded surprisingly op- timistic. Why are you so hopeful about the future? Let's start by taking a closer look at the year that has just ended. For the first six months of 2021, the entire industry was essentially closed. Actually, it had been at a standstill for a lot longer than that; I remember addressing a press conference in Paceville in March 2020, on the day our industry was shut down. Now: when I say 'closed', I'm talking about how the vast majority of business- es were affected. Truth be told, there were some which carried on ticking over throughout the crisis; and some which even made a profit. No doubt about it. But for the vast majority, it was a differ- ent story. Hotels and restaurants in tour- ist areas, or which cater almost exclusive- ly for tourists… and even shops; because when we, as Chamber of SMES, look at tourism, we don't only look at hotels, restaurants, bars and the hospitality/en- tertainment side of things. It is also a fact that 70% of all retail also depends, either directly or indirectly, on tourism. In any case: all of those sectors suddenly saw their revenue drop right down to ze- ro, from literally one day to the next. Bear in mind that this pandemic also broke out right after the industry's most successful few years ever: 2017, 2018, and especially 2019 – which, with its 2.7 million arrivals, had broken all previous records. So many operators had invested heavily in new tourism projects, for what they (understandably) thought was going to be a continuation of the same success- ful streak… That, in a nutshell, was the situation when the pandemic first broke out. So when we reopened last June, there was high expectation among operators… and sure enough, tourists started coming. Things were admittedly disrupted in July, when there was a spike in new in- fections: coming mainly from language students. But even then: we managed to contain that spike, by introducing tight- er regulations. After that, the numbers started falling again almost immediately; and carried on stabilising until Novem- ber. But the bottom line is that – notwith- standing the pandemic, and the fact that we were closed for six months – looking back, 2021 wasn't really a bad year for Maltese tourism at all. As things stand, we are going to close with a total of 920,000 tourists; and when you consider that we only worked from June onwards… and that the effects of COVID were at their very worst, at that point, in most other European coun- tries… that is actually quite good, by any standard. Even at the height of the crisis, then, we still managed to attract one-third of the figures for 2019: when tourism was at its most optimal levels ever. And not only were the figures themselves positive, in terms of volume… but we also attracted a better 'spend' of tourist, too. In fact, from August to October, we saw that tourists were spending even more than in 2019... I find all that very encouraging, myself: because it means that – as long as we all do our bit, and respect the regulations – we can manage to keep the industry tick- ing over; until hopefully we return to the overall sustainable levels, where we left off in 2019… But can you really compare today's cri- sis, with that of last year? For instance: the CDC has just put Malta at 'Red List Level 4'; and the US State Department has just issued a warning against travel- ling to Malta. Doesn't that threaten the very lifeblood of the tourism industry: i.e., the ability for tourists to actually come here at all? Actually, that's only one of the ways Omicron has messed things up for us. Once again, the numbers are shooting up at a time when we were only just begin- ning to see some kind of 'positive future', growing out of all this; and once again, the virus itself first hit the EU – especially the countries that we rely on the most: the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain… before hitting us. So it was a double-whammy, in a sense. First, there was an abrupt drop in tourism arrivals, with bookings dropping straight away as Omicron hit Europe. Then, all of a sudden, the same thing happened here: with the difference that this time round, it also affected the domestic market. The figures for Christmas Eve show this quite clearly. Even though there were no new regulations in place, until just last week… people started cancelling their bookings, and withdrawing from con- sumption, of their own accord. Either because they were themselves infected; or because they were in quarantine; or because they were scared… but whatever the case, it wasn't because of any new reg- ulations, imposed by government, to shut down the industry on Christmas Eve. And of course, this is all happening at the most critical time of the year for the hospitality industry: the Festive Season... Yet just a few moments ago you seemed optimistic (and still do) that we can pull through this latest crisis, like we did last year. What makes you so confident? I wouldn't call it 'optimism', myself. It's more a forecast based on… well, let's just say that I do a lot of research; I speak to people; and I am in contact, at all times, with every aspect of the entire sup- ply-chain. And the message I am getting, Malta's tourism sector has just been dealt a critical blow by the Omicron variant. But PHILIP FENECH, deputy president of the Chamber of SMES, remains confident that the industry can not only survive the latest crisis… but even 'bounce back' in the New Year