Thursday, June 15, 2006

Gozo and Malta's Image in the UK.

I spotted this letter from Nick Reeves of London, in todays Malta Times.

"Let me be clear: I'm a Brit and I love Malta. And although we in the UK aren't in the best position to tell others how to look after their natural and cultural assets, I'm worried that Malta, in chasing visitor numbers at the expense of quality, will lose those things of which it can be most proud.

So, I read with interest plans to re-brand Malta with a windfall of government money to the Maltese Tourist Authority (MTA) to undertake the exercise to re-position the country in the global tourism market. Certainly the Maltese islands are unique and deserve to be more widely appreciated. However, given that Malta is now facing stiff competition from eastern Europe, in addition to that from its more traditional rivals in the Mediterranean, it must surely - now - play to its strengths in order to secure a future as a top tourist destination with genuinely green credentials. This means a curb on unsustainable development, better stewardship of the natural environment, conservation of the built heritage and artifacts, and targeting a more sophisticated audience". For the full letter click here Malta's Image.


I think that he is absolutly right, it is almost as if Malta and Gozo are trying to on one hand keep the property developers happy, and at the same time trying to please the EU and green lobby, whilst this is alway's going to be a dificult balancing act I feel you have to take the bull by the horns so to speak, do something substantial and not just tinker around the edges and try to please all the people all of the time.
I don't know if the tourism promotion in the UK is being done by a British company or Maltese, I get the impression it is a Maltese company, the first rule of advertising is "know your market" and I feel that a British advertising company would better know how to get into the strange and weird minds of the British consumer.

"You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements".
Norman Douglas.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...and I feel that a British advertising company would better know how to get into the strange and weird minds of the British consumer."
I don't believe British consumers have strange and weird minds!! Any person who's going on a hard-earned holiday expects a decent return for his/her money. And that's exactly what Malta - and Gozo! - are less and less able to offer...

You'll be able to judge for yourself soon!! ;-)

Unknown said...

Perhap's unique minds would be a better description, where a particular approach to advertising may work with the Maltese it takes a different approach in the UK, it needs to be something quirky.
But value for money is always important of course.