MALTA (26 August 2004) -- Temporary dive centres opened in summer by foreigners are one of the reasons contributing to a decline in business for the main centres that stick to regulations, according to Agnes Upton, of Maltaacqua of St Paul's Bay. "Dive centres are mushrooming all over the place, opened by foreigners who come here for the summer. They open for business for three months and by the time the authorities catch up with them they have creamed their take," Ms Upton complained. The main dive centres in Malta and Gozo have been feeling the pinch this year as the number of dive tourists to the island takes a plunge. Ms Upton said the dive sites were "empty" and that up to the middle of July "we were dead". "Up to the middle of July last year we had 15 diving instructors working, this year we barely have six. We are down between 15 - 20 per cent on last year. And last year, we were 10 per cent down on the year before. "The fact that there was the Euro 2004 and the Olympics may have affected arrivals. But we thought it would improve and it hasn't." Ms Upton argued that other countries, such as Tunisia and Libya, were opening up while the price of a flight to Malta was still exorbitant. Ms Upton's husband, Mike, argued that divers can go to the Caribbean and to the Red Sea at the same price of a trip to Malta, if not cheaper. "Why should they come here? As things stand we are already expensive. The jump in the price of diesel has pushed up the price of boat hire, which is Lm10 for a dive. "Out of that Lm10, nearly Lm2 goes to the VAT man and the rest goes mostly to cover other expenses - they have no VAT in Egypt or the Caribbean. We are not competing with the guy up the road but with people who have got a real product including coral, beautiful colour fishes and sharks. "We have Cirkewwa which is full of rocks and dust, that's our best dive site," Mr Upton said. He added that the flight from New York to Malta costs Lm150 while in the Red Sea they have a five-star hotel, all the diving included, for about £400. "All our costs have gone up, including VAT, fuel, motor vehicle insurance and boat hire," Mr Upton complained. Diving should be treated, he felt, like hotels, only paying five per cent VAT instead of 18 per cent. "VAT has killed us because most of us have had to absorb it." Mr Upton explained that Malta can compete with its good facilities, safety and much greater personal attention given to divers. In the Red Sea, about 30 people go on a dive with one dive master while in Malta there are four instructors to 20 divers. Enforcement has to be much more rigid, in the sense that if a dive centre does not have a permit to operate, it should be closed down and not just fined, he argued. Dive centres should not be allowed to operate unless they comply fully with all the requirements. Deep sea diver Emi Farrugia, who is pushing for the setting up of a marine foundation whose main brief would be to upgrade the dive product, felt the marine protection area being suggested for the north west of Malta between Rdum Majjiesa and Ras ir-Raheb is mostly accessible. "Money should be spent on marine sites that are connected directly with tourism and which would help enhance the revenue to the industry. | | "The Malta Tourism Authority is prepared to fork out some money to assist in the stimulation of the product. I am appealing to all stakeholders who would like to push the product to come together. Time is not on our side. "The foundation would coordinate efforts by dive centres to collect a contribution by each diver that would go for the revamping of the product, including the creation of more wreck sites and the monitoring of marine conservation areas. "The way things are at the moment is that it seems like most of the dive centres are prepared to join forces but because of a very few, the foundation cannot get off the ground," Mr Farrugia added. The Malta Environment and Planning Authority is turning out to be a stumbling block in some of the projects initiated by the diving community, Mr Farrugia said. "For example, once we do a wreck, Mepa asks us to monitor the site but if we are managers of such sites we need the legal backing to stop fishing activities and people from spear fishing in the area," he added. Mr Upton said that Mepa expected the diving community to produce environmental reports on the wreck sites, recording what fish life has been attracted and what species are growing on the wreck. "This is most intriguing research but it is something for university students to work on. We shouldn't have to pay Lm5,000 for someone to go out and carry out this research," Mr Upton argued. Mr Farrugia wondered what was the point of being asked by Mepa to carry out fish counts if fishing was allowed over wrecks. "One of our instructors about two years ago saw somebody taking boxes of mussels off the Faroud wreck. The mussels had grown there and looked beautiful but we could do nothing to stop him, " Mr Upton recalled with exasperation. "It would be a good idea to have more wrecks but what we really need is a marine park - Malta has been talking about this need since the 1980s. "A marine park would be a good thing for Malta and not only for the diving community. Instead of throwing away Lm9 million a year on advertising, this money could go towards establishing such a park. "Malta gets a three per cent repeat rate. That shows you that all that money is wasted - such a low repeat rate means visitors are not satisfied with what they get here. There is total disorganisation in the tourism industry," Mr Upton said. Ms Upton claimed there was a dive group that was stripping the wreck of Les Polynesien, taking the parts of it out of the country and selling them. "We have reported this to the authorities but nothing has come of it," she complained. "The first aim is to improve Product Malta. All the stakeholders in the tourism industry have to bear in mind that in order to fill the hotels and apartments somebody has to come here for something," Mr Upton said. SOURCE - Malta Times |
