Editorial | A bounce-back strategy for the post-COVID reality

Government has not laid out its plan yet to start lifting the restrictions imposed as part of the effort to keep the coronavirus under control.

Sister newspaper MaltaToday on Wednesday reported that monitoring of the spread will continue for the next 10 days before a decision on how to proceed will be taken.

In Parliament, Health Minister Chris Fearne said lifting of restrictions will be done gradually and warned that discipline must still be maintained to ensure that COVID-19 remains in check.

This is a very cautious approach, which has to be dictated by health considerations above anything else.

Some European countries have started lifting restrictions, albeit cautiously and very gradually. Others have given an indication of when they intend to initiate the process.

We understand that any decision to start lifting restrictions will not mean an immediate return to normality – indeed, even WHO warns that it can never be a return to normal but to “a new normal” that will continue being dictated by health considerations to keep the coronavirus under control.

It is this new normal that will necessitate some out-of-the-box thinking to get the country prepared for a post-COVID economic recovery.

The recovery will not be the same for every sector of the economy. It will be slow, out of synch and can be painful with some businesses closing shop.

Tourism will definitely be one of the last to pick up because it depends primarily on what happens in our source markets.

But there is work that could be done in the interim period, which can come in useful when the wheel starts to turn again.

At a very basic level, the key tourist hotspots should be given a major spruce up that also includes infrastructural works to upgrade services, roads and public infrastructure.

With very little traffic and few people out on the streets, this is the time to tackle long-standing problems in localities like St Paul’s Bay, Paceville and St Julian’s.

Now is the time to do up the roads, upgrade pavements, revamp public conveniences, invest in better road signage, paint public benches, do up playing fields, create public water fountains, invest in more greenery, upgrade electricity cables and change sewer and water pipes.

It would help to advance some of the works planned for the next years to benefit from the idleness brought about by the coronavirus.

But the government will also have to draw up a plan to offer airlines market support for when borders start to open.

The airline industry has been decimated and while some companies have gone bust, others will return to the field with reduced flight schedules, fewer planes and a cautious approach to growth.

In these circumstances, Malta must be on the frontline offering incentives to attract tourist traffic by aggressively supporting airlines, the same way it did when low cost travel started being a reality in the early 2000s. The country will have to fight for its patch.

However, businesses will also have to re-dimension their offerings. Hotels that invested to increase their capacity over recent years may have to contend with keeping entire floors shut down as they start from scratch.

The recovery will not be easy. But preparing for it is important.

Domestic tourism will be the first to kick off, albeit in a very slow manner. This will help some businesses in the tourism sector to start turning their wheels, although it is very likely that social distancing restrictions will change the state of play.

This may be the time for operators to get together and plan joint packages, along with councils to attract Maltese patrons to their locality when restrictions start to be lifted.

The uncertainty brought about by an invisible enemy that will remain a public health threat until a vaccine is found, may not be conducive to long-term planning. But having a bounce-back strategy will be key when the recovery starts.