Unfinished Malta

Vanessa Macdonald joined a coach tour and wrote this piece for the Times from a tourist angle:

Tourists who spend a few days in Malta might have enough time to form a fairly balanced opinion of Malta but those who arrive on a cruise liner have only a few hours. What can we do to make that impression as good as possible? Last Friday, the Malta Cruise Network, a lobby group formed by stakeholders in this important industry, invited Vanessa Macdonald to join a coach tour, led by a guide representing the Malta Union of Tourist Guides. The aim was to highlight all the things that are wrong but they are also things that could and should be easily improved. Why? To ensure that in future each of those yearly 350,000 passengers goes away with a good opinion... and hopefully returns.

By 8 a.m., there were already three cruise ships in the Grand Harbour and a steady stream of coaches was being filled and dispatched with near military precision from Pinto Wharf. Most of the passengers who opted to do their own thing would emerge from the ships later but a few were already making their way into the aluminium and glass booth erected on the quay. The tourism information part of it, set up by Viset, helps those who want directions and assistance, while the White Taxi Amalgamated part handles taxi bookings..

They make their way gingerly through the holes in the pavement and the maze of boxes and display stands, to find themselves confronted by crumbling City Gate. Alas, they have no idea that there were multimillion liri plans to put the buses underground, or decades-old plans for the entrance. A few that had prepared their cameras put them down again with a frown. "Why are they paving outside (the road near Porte des Bombes) but not here?" a tourist asked her companion. Many of the independent ones pop into the Malta Tourism Authority's information office, which is well stocked with brochures in English (brochures in other languages available on demand as they are in short supply). The information file includes the week's weather forecast, cultural calendars, up-to-date rates of exchange. The staff is helpful and informed but this is the day of the Pope's funeral and they are trying to find out just what is open. Alas, they tell the French tourists, St John's Co-Cathedral is closed...