Alex Borg proposes specific tourism marketing campaign for Valletta

PN Leader Alex Borg has called for a specific tourism marketing for Valletta to attract quality tourists

In an interview with The Malta Independent, Borg was asked about complaints that Malta is attracting too many tourists and that the country should target higher spending tourists in fewer numbers. He said that hearing that millions of tourists are coming each year does not impress him. “What would impress me is if the Tourism Minister would say that from one year to the next the amount of tourists that came to the country left double the amount of funds in the pockets of Maltese businesses and families.”

“The reality is that the number of tourists is increasing, but the country is not coping with the millions of tourists coming from one year to the next, especially when the infrastructural and capital investment in the country is not being done in tandem with the same ratio as the increase in tourism numbers. If you want to increase the number of tourists, you need to continue investing in infrastructure to be able to keep up with the demand.”

“I would prefer if, instead of the millions that were spent to have Visit Malta advertised with Manchester United, we would have spent them on agreements with internationally reputable museums, to have internationally reputable exhibitions in a number of empty palaces in our country from the best painters and sculptures around the world, and we would be attracting this kind of tourism. Quality tourism, cultural tourism. When it comes to gastronomy, we have the best kitchens in Malta, lets promote gastronomy tourism.” He also mentioned medical tourism. “This is the kind of tourism we need to attract.”

Turning to Valletta, he said that he believes that it should be separated from Visit Malta and that there should be a specific marketing campaign on Visit Valletta, because of its richness and identity, to attract quality tourists who want to see it. 

“The same thing happened in England. Today when people look at England, the first thing that comes to mind is London, because the tourism marketing campaign for England is London, as the city’s identity attracts different tourists than other areas. I believe that would be a perfect campaign for Valletta, to attract high spending quality tourists who do not leave a burden on the people. We need to ensure that tourism serves us, that they do not adversely affect the quality of life, that they render more money in the pockets of Maltese families.”

Asked about overpopulation, Borg said that there are economic sectors that depend on foreign workers, but said there are other sectors where Maltese can be incentivised to join. He also spoke of the need for a labour market study to take a picture, so to speak, of the market at the moment.

He said that the problem is the system, not the workers.

He said that with the study, “we can start tweaking the system,” to help direct Maltese in certain directions. For instance, he believes the country can invest a lot into Research and Development as a new quality niche that could leave a lot of money for the pockets of the Maltese. The government is not giving the necessary input to continue growing the research and development sector, he said. On the science sector, he spoke of the need to incentivise more Maltese youths to go towards the sciences, to grow this economic sector. “That is how we should lead the country. In 2013 there was a decision that the economic direction of the country would be to continue increasing the population with third country nationals. A PN government, with a labour market study, would strengthen the business sectors that depend on foreign workers as we know that there are sectors that cannot operate without foreign workers, but we also want to incentivise new sectors like R&D, science, the blue economy.” 

On the latter point he mentioned, for instance, increasing maritime courses to have a skilled workforce for the blue economy. On aviation, he spoke about aircraft leasing which “Malta has enormous potential for, mentioning doing something similait to what had been done between MCAST and Lufthansa Technik.” 

“The PN has the political will to head in this direction, the government has not yet shown it does. That is why we are projecting ourselves as an alternative government.”

Election preparations

The general election will take place latest next year. Asked whether the party is ready for an election should one be called early, Borg said that the party underwent an internal restructuring and created structures to have them ready in place for the election. Here, he mentioned the appointment of a campaign manager and his campaign team which, Borg said, as soon as an election is called, can start their work issuing its message. He also mentioned the communications director working to ensure that the party’s message reaches people, and the party’s focus on social media. The sectional committees are also prepared, he said, adding that the party is also ensuring that it has the finances in place for a campaign, adding that in the first 100 days of his leadership the party collected over €1 million, “which is a record for 100 days.”

He said the PN is prepared to enter an election campaign. “I am prepared, the team is prepared for the campaign, but there is always more to do.”

He said the last surveys were positive and good, but there is always room for improvement. “I always see myself as needing to convince more people, I can never see myself as being complacent and doing nothing. There is always more to do, and more people to convince.”

27 confirmed candidates

From the beginning of the month the party started working to find new candidates for the general election while also continuing to work on policymaking, Borg said. “So far we have around 27 confirmed candidates.”

He mentioned the planned National Convention set for February. “We want to hear from the public and will welcome everyone.” He said that it will not be held inside the PN HQ, stressing that he wants it to be a national convention, not a partisan one, “a convention where those who speak the least are the politicians, and those who speak the most are the people, NGOs, social partners. People in the audience will have the opportunity to voice their concerns, problems and thoughts.” He said he does not see people as numbers, but as individuals, and wants to listen to the problems they face.

During the interview, Borg said that he kept the promises he made during the leadership election campaign last summer, mentioning specifically the publication of the party’s accounts for the years 2021-2024, and the appointment of a CEO of the party, “who is looking at restructuring of the party’s financial situation and looking into maximising the party’s income from its assets.” He said that the CEO’s role is to look at maximising the income without selling party clubs.

The party is also looking at other ventures for income, he said, and is looking into restructuring Eurotours as one example. “We are also looking at other ventures,” he said, adding that the PN will make public later what it plans.

The first part of the interview was published yesterday