Talk:Malta/Archive 2005-2010

For future reference the Project:CIA World Factbook 2002 import can be found at Talk:Malta/CIA World Factbook 2002 import.

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Costs

Malta is cheaper than most of Europe, and here's a link to prove it. Malta's index rating is 127, compared to eg. 159 for the UK, 186 for Austria and 125 for Prague. (WT-en) Jpatokal 07:39, 25 Nov 2005 (EST)

This site however is about -living costs for permanent residents-, based on parameters which I'm still looking into. Many ministries of Foreign affairs do this to estimate the costs their diplomatic missions might incur, I know that the Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs recently had to adjust their estimate after new research was done in Malta.

Admittedly based on my own experience, a total of 11 visits of the last 2 years, I think Malta has rather expensive tourist facilities in relation to the quality provided. Furthermore it cannot be denied that for the average Maltese the supermarket prices are very high, certainly higher than most of north Europe, even though the average income per capita here is a multiple of that in Malta. I have had Maltese acquaintances confirm this by their amazement at low prices in even our most upmarket supermarket chain, and this after the Euro hiked up prices here.

Restaurants also aren't the best value for money unless one knows where to go, as are hotels and shops. The unfortunate reality is as far as I'm concerned mass-tourism has had a rather negative effect on certain aspects of Malta, and value for money for tourists is one of them. In other Mediterranean tourist destinations such as Greece, Spain and Portugal one can ofcourse also find places heavily affected by unregulated tourist development but these then have plenty of alternatives which retain reasonable prices.

I feel that to say Malta is cheap doesn't accurately reflect the situation here, but rather is said simply to promote Malta which I would say isn't the point of Wikivoyage. If I have time I will come back with more concrete facts.

Hmm. I found Maltan prices rather cheap compared even to Italy, but it's been over 5 years since my last visit -- and I was staying in a cheap hostel out in Sliema and self-catering from the nearby supermarket. But you seem to know what you're talking about better than me, so go ahead and fix it up. (WT-en) Jpatokal 09:09, 25 Nov 2005 (EST)

On reading again maybe I came on a bit strong, didn't mean to sound pedantic :)

Some reading has taught me the following: what it comes down to is that other tourist destinations in south Europe have a tourist economy with tourist prices and a local economy with local prices. Malta's tourist industry is so pervasive that its economy has become the standard for everyone, and even these tourist prices are higher than in other Mediterannean countries.

I'd like to know where to find those decent €6.50 pizzas mentioned in the article. Malta is not cheap by any standards, unless you're satisfied with eating shite served by careless waiters. 85.232.207.99 06:47, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Learn

This entry might seem a bit negative but I think it's better to be honest than have people go there and be disappointed if they were expecting to find a first language English speaking country. Most Maltese abroad will insist that all Maltese speak English, but extensive experience has proven that actually most speak -some- English, clearly as a foreign language. What struck me time and again is that higher income Maltese and young people will speak English ostensively in public but then will switch to Maltese again after a few sentences. (WT-en) PeterW 14:53, 16 Feb 2006 (EST)

"I am a Maltese myself and you should know that the source that told you that everyone speaks English is unreliable. However some people don`t know Maltese well so they speak half English and half Maltese. The Maltese language is very complicated" (What a Maltese person has to say about the previous entry.)

Most maltese speak english to some degree or another, Italian is widely understood and spoken by quite a number as well. Compared to other Europeans Maltese have a better standard of english. ( Maltese & been all over Europe )

Most people speak very good English compared to certain countries which I would rather not mention. Many speak Italian too and a good handful are happy to speak 4 to 5 languages like myself. People under 60 most of the time can speak good English and Maltese. One has to take in consideration that in many countries in Europe, people do not want to speak English by no means and if you do not know the language of that country, you are lost. They stick to speaking their own language either because they are hard headed or because they can't speak English! I can easily name France, Luxembourg (people think everyone knows letzebuergisch), Italy and Germany. So I think a population of 400000 people like there is in Malta is blessed to have a good knowledge of languages and does the very best to help every tourist that lands here. Regards N

By Car

About the changes made to last edits; sorry if I point out the obvious but NPOV doesn't necesarily mean US POV, the cars are small and the petrol is indeed expensive, as this is Europe. I gather from your contributions that you've also been to Afghanistan, I haven't been but I assume that saying that their roadsystem is medieval can, in contrast to Malta, safely be called NPOV. The roads aren't good, that is true, but the only places where the roads date back so far are places like Mdina where cars can't go. (WT-en) PeterW 14:55, 16 Feb 2006 (EST)

By Bus

Thanks for adding the buslines list but it's better to just have the most important ones or a link to a site which lists this info.

Respect

Removed cat comment as it's not necessary to tell wikivoyagers to not abuse cats. As far as I know this section is meant for things that an average traveller might not think of themselves which can be offensive locally rather than stating the obvious.

Helicopter Service

The Helicopter services has been terminated. Now the Maltese government is trying to build an airport in Gozo in an archaeologically rich area. It will be great if you guys can give more prominence to the sister island of Gozo and mention some of the unknown sites mentioned in www.gozo.us that can be used for walking and rambling on the island. Gozo needs Agro Tourism so any mentions to Gozo in this article will be much appreciated! (WT-en) Johnmizzi 08:36, 17 January 2007 (EST)

GuidetoMalta

User:(WT-en) Dwardumt pointed out the GuidetoMalta.net site. It doesn't meet our external link policy, but it does have some info on activities and restaurants that we don't cover/cover thinly. I've posted the link below for reference/mining. -(WT-en) Shaund 00:43, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

Guide to Malta

External links policy

What is your external links policy?

• Can be found here. (WT-en) Nrms 07:55, 13 May 2009 (EDT)

Regions

Our current setup for Malta is a bit schizophrenic. There are three inhabited Maltese islands and those should be three regions I think. At the moment we have the two small ones as regions (Gozo and Comino) but the main island is not. There needs to be a third region called Malta Island I think. I hardly see any scope for debate on this, but comments please!--(WT-en) Burmesedays 23:10, 26 March 2010 (EDT)

That certainly sounds right. I was going to suggest that Comino, with a population of 4, might not sustain an article, but then I looked at the article which it sustains ;) --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 03:06, 27 March 2010 (EDT)

No arguments from me. -(WT-en) Shaund 22:40, 27 March 2010 (EDT)