All my life I have hated going to the beach. The parking problems, the noise and the sheer number of people jostling to find a spot on our small sandy beaches made for a horrible experience. So it was quite a surprise when my husband suggested a beach paradise as a vacation destination. I was not convinced, but agreed to give it a try.
The experience was an eye-opener. We flew to an island which gives the word beach holiday a totally different dimension.
It is not just the fact that the beaches themselves are gorgeous – endless stretches of golden sand and sparkling clear blue water. It is the infrastructure and facilities that are in place around the beaches to ensure that tourists have a wonderful experience.
Let’s take the landscaping. The best beaches were surrounded with beautiful trees and flowers that were obviously lovingly cared for. Each beach had police officers and coast guards on patrol to ensure that nobody made a nuisance of themselves by making too much noise or bothering other people in any way whatsoever.
There were clean lavatories and showers and all the facilities that one could possibly need after a day lazing in the sun.
It was beach heaven and boy did we enjoy it!
The island was a tropical paradise and one could spend weeks drifting from one beach to the next, taking in the wonderful scenery. However, guess what, other than that there was not much else to do. One could visit the capital city or take a tour of a sugar refinery, but that’s as far as it went.
So by the end of the week I had one big question buzzing around in my head. Why on earth do we persist in trying to sell Malta as a “Sun ‘n’ Fun” destination when, quite frankly, we really do not cut it in the beach stakes? We can never beat destinations such as the Maldives, Bali, Mauritius and the Seychelles. It is not a matter of investment alone (although frankly a little more money spent on cleaning the beaches, landscaping the area and manning the beaches would help) – it is a matter of size. We are a small island and our beaches are on the same scale. In summer they are hopelessly overcrowded.
Ultimately when it comes to beach destinations we are destined to be perceived as a second-rate option – the tourists who come here on a beach holiday are the ones who want a cheap deal (I just saw an advert for a one-week holiday in Malta on an all-inclusive basis for GBP299!). Surely we can aim higher than that?
The big spenders will not come to Malta for a beach vacation – they will sit on a plane for slightly longer and go to one of the gorgeous luxurious resorts that can be found in the Indian Ocean and South East Asia.
The truth is that we can, and do, beat such top-notch beach destinations hands down when it comes to cultural attractions. This little rock of ours is jam-packed with wonderful places to visit – Mdina, Hagar Qim, Valletta, Cottonera, Grand Harbour. The list goes on and on, wonderful destinations that we should use in our promotional material instead of just photos of beaches!
We have excellent hotels, top notch restaurants and enough cultural attractions to satisfy the most addicted of culture-junkies.
We have been uncommonly blessed – we should take full advantage of that!
Back on the rock Well, on Sunday I got back and tried to catch up with local events. I found a lot to amuse me – it seems that an entire soap opera was played out in parliament while I was away! I have to agree with the Prime Minister – our parliament is a kindergarten and our parliamentarians are a bunch of bickering ninnies.
At the end of the day the vote in question was of no importance. What was the point of the ruckus?
Good on you, Minister Cristina! I was delighted that Family Minister Dolores Cristina has gone on the record stating that the courts should be much harder on incompetent mothers and fathers and exercise more often the right to remove parental rights and give the children up for adoption.
Minister Cristina has now added her voice to that of many other people who have worked in the field, people such as the ex-Children’s Commissioner Carmen Zammit and the former CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, Joe Gerada, who stated clearly that parents who refused to reform should have their parental rights permanently removed.
It is heart-breaking to hear of children languishing in institutions for years on end, receiving occasional visits from their irresponsible mothers and fathers. These children are entitled to a life and it is our responsibility to do everything within our control to give it to them.
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