The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) has said that following a random survey that was carried out between Monday and Tuesday this week, particularly the main tourists areas of Sliema, St Julians, Bugibba, Qawra and Mellieha, it showed that the complaints tourists had voiced in the past still persisted.

MHRA said that the “transport service changes introduced by Arriva on Sunday have not led to a satisfactory improvement in the public transport service.”

“The MHRA continued, “that the feedback by visitors on the survey was overall negative with some visitors complaining vociferously about the long waits and that the service was not of an acceptable standard. The fact that buses are very often full up and the unreliability of the schedules also remain critical issues.” The association added that, “the survey’s feedback echoed that of the general public.”

MHRA said that, “the survey we conducted gives us direct feedback by visitors, which unfortunately shows a consistent negative trend. It’s clear that the new public transport service is having a negative impact on the overall experience of the Malta product.”

The MHRA President, George Micallef went on, “this is of course a very serious issue which is harming our image and our country and I cannot understand how the authorities can tolerate such a situation. We appeal to the government to treat this issue with urgency.” He also noted that visitors are having to pay higher bus fares.

MHRA concluded that, “unfortunately it seems that Arriva and Transport Malta are not interested in the level of service that so many thousands of tourists are getting, which perhaps explains why they have failed to respond to our communications.”

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