Dr Joseph Vancell

Have your recently been to Malta's International Airport? If not there's a surprise waiting for you! Now, to use a trolley, you must use a Euro. I learnt about this novelty recently when I was travelling from Manchester to Malta. The Airmalta Airbus was full of British 'mature' tourists who were not carrying any small change, let alone a Euro coin. Indeed, many had to carry their heavy bags out of the arrivals without the use of a trolley. Not a good start to their holiday! Ok, you get your Euro back when you carry and relock the trolley to one of the many trolley-piles at the airport, however, this reminded me of the notorious RyanAir cost-cutting novelty - that of paying to use the onboard toilets.

Tourism is a pillar of our small and vulnerable service-oriented economy. In the service industry little client-oriented things, including their treatment at the airport, make a big difference. Let's not treat the tourist and the Maltese traveller with a supermarket mentality.