Summer Sentiment 2023
Article byIDEA Research TeamPublished on Mon Aug 14 202319 minute read
Executive Summary
This survey carried out research to identify the public’s current holiday preferences and sentiment rating towards a number of local topics. The findings of the survey include the following:
- There is a preference to have an overseas holiday when compared to local holidays or a visit to Gozo. Europe is the most popular destination for overseas holidays.
- The majority budget spent on a holiday is €1,000 or less per person.
- The most common duration for holidays is a full week, closely followed by more than a week.
- There is a favourable rating sentiment towards Malta’s healthcare system across all demographics by age, region and education.
- There is a concerning sentiment towards Malta’s political climate and quality of debate, road works and traffic, local salaries, air quality, cost of living and electricity provision. The most concerning sentiment is towards the size of the country’s population.
- The overall relative sentiment for Summer 2023 is that it is a worse period than previous summers.
Introduction
The aim of this survey is to gather a perception of the Maltese public during the 2023 summer on two fronts. On the first front, the survey sets a lighter tone by gathering information on the public’s holiday intentions, destinations and overall budgeting. Second, the survey utilises summer as a generic mid-point to a calendar year and obtains a sentiment rating on different aspects of life in Malta at the time of collection.
Maltasurvey.com, powered by IDEA Intelligence which is part of IDEA Group is a public space where citizens can freely and voluntarily voice their concerns on different topics. This site is completely independent of any political party or media organisation. Our aim is to use this platform to bring to the fore general ideas and perceptions and evaluate the responses in line with the current trends.
Methodology
Data Gathering & Analysis
This online survey was carried out between the 1st and 5th of August 2023. An online invitation was sent on social media platforms and all participants opted to voice their opinion voluntarily. Data gathering was administered by MaltaSurvey.com without input from The Malta Independent to prevent any potential reader bias.
Submissions were gathered through MaltaSurvey.com’s proprietary platform and full anonymity of the sample base was ensured. Analysis was done using Data Science tools including Python, Julia, SPSS and Jupyter Notebooks.
Stratification & Post-Stratification Weighting
It is imperative to note that whilst the sample is fully anonymous, demographic variables were utilised in the first section to keep control of the representativeness of the sample. The target population was people living in Malta between 16 and 70 years of age. Thus, the NSO census was used to establish the required proportions of the sample by Gender, Age and Region.
After collecting the sample, the cases were weighted by the same three variables (Gender, Age and Region) to ensure a close representation of the sample.
Margin of Error
As of April 11 2022, Malta had a population of 383,661 between 16 and 70 years of age. With a sample size of 950 participants, the findings mentioned below have a margin of error of 3% at a 95% confidence level.
Findings
Demographic Analysis of the Sample Population
The sample consists of 950 participants composed of 54.5% males and 46.5% females with the below distribution of age groups. This, coupled with the distribution of regions shows that the sample is a similar representation of the population of the Maltese islands.
The majority of the sample, with a 92.3% proportion, has been living in Malta for more than 10 years, followed by 3.2% who have been living in Malta within the last 5-10 years with decreasing proportion of recent residents in the sample.
The largest portion, with 25.9%, of the sample had a Master’s Degree, followed by those having a Bachelor’s Degree at 20.7%. Combining the portions of the bachelor’s degree, the master’s degree and the doctoral degree shows how half of the sample has at least graduated from one degree.
Assessing holiday sentiments during Summer 2023
To understand the participant’s preferences, the questions were presented in the following categoric nature. As a start, the participants were asked if they had the intention of having a holiday this summer (or have already had one in the summer). This holiday could be foreign and/or local. To further identify intentions, the participants were separately asked if they intend to visit Gozo. This is to cater for a sentiment where a visit to Gozo is not always specifically recalled as a holiday. It is important to note that these scenarios were posed as mutually exclusive cases rather than a choice of one priority over the other.
For the sake of definition, a holiday is referred to as a period of time of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or travelling. Whilst it is trivial to understand a holiday when considering foreign travel, one can also spend time away from home or away from the workplace without crossing any international borders; that is what we refer to as “local holidays”. Half of the sample showed no intention of having a local holiday (50.1%) whereas 40.5% affirmed that they intend to do so. 9.5% of the sample is undecided on the matter.
When asked about their intentions to have an overseas holiday, 62.6% of the sample affirmed this intention. Simultaneously, this type of holiday had the lowest rate of negation (31.6%) and uncertainty (5.9%). The affirmation rate for participants who are planning to visit or already visited Gozo is 48.3%. This segment of the holiday categories also has the highest rate of uncertainty at 14.7%.
The pattern of preferring an overseas holiday, followed by a visit to Gozo, followed by having a local holiday is clearly exhibited between the ages of 16 and 40. Whilst every age group shows a preference for an overseas holiday, the gap between a local holiday and a visit to Gozo is diminished between the ages of 41 and 60. Amongst the ages between 61 and 70, a local holiday is preferred over a trip to Gozo.
The participants were asked for their main destination of choice for their planned overseas holiday for this summer. This could also involve holidays that they have already been on during the summer. The participants could make a choice of one continent for the sake of categorisation of destinations.
Amongst the sample, Europe is the strongest destination of choice when considering planned overseas holidays with a portion of 60.7%. All other continents have a portion of less than 2% each, with 35.2% of the sample not having a planned holiday thus far for this summer.
An important aspect of planning a holiday is the duration of which that holiday will be. For the sake of completeness, this question includes both participants that are seeking a local holiday and an overseas holiday. The choices ranged from a weekend, five days, a full week or more than a full week.
The most popular duration amongst participants that already made holiday plans for the summer is having a holiday lasting a full week with 23.9%. This is followed by the portion of participants opting for more than a full week (20.3%) and five days (19.3%) for their holiday. The smallest portion comprises those participants spending a weekend on their planned holiday with 5.3%.
Understanding the participants’ plans for their summer holidays involved asking them about their financial plans relative to those holidays. The first question in this manner asked the level of budgets that were planned for their holidays. Rather than ask for a numeric value, the participants had a choice from 4 ranges.
The majority of the sample, comprising a 48% portion, has a budget of €1,000 or less per holiday. This is followed by the 27.1% portion of people with a budget of €1,001 to €2,000. The groups with a budget of €2,001 to €3000 and over €3,000 have 12% each.
Furthermore, the participants were also asked if this budget is relatively higher, lower or the same as the previous summer. The participants were also given the option of uncertainty in this question.
The majority of the sample, comprising 32.4% of participants, shows plans to spend the same budget on holidays as last year. This is followed by the 24.9% portion declaring they plan to spend more on holidays this year and 21.9% who plan to spend less. 20.8% are unsure whether the budget will be more or less than last year.
Assessing sentiments towards local topics during Summer 2023
A number of topics were presented to the participants for their rating in terms of quality in the second part of the survey. These topics involved local infrastructure, our healthcare system, employment conditions, living provisions and the overall political climate. The rating was provided to the participants on a 4-point scale with the following levels for every topic presented.
- Excellent
- Good
- Fair
- Poor
Malta’s Healthcare System
Malta’s healthcare system occupies a good rating of 41.3% of the sample and an excellent rating of 14.5%. That means that a combined 55.8% are satisfied with the quality of the country’s healthcare system. 28.4% rate the quality of healthcare as fair but not good whilst 15.9% gave it a poor rating.
Observing the distribution of ratings by age group shows how satisfaction is repeated across every age demographic. Particular attention is to be shown to the age group between 41-50 years rating it as fair but not good and the 16-17 cohort rating the healthcare system as poor.
The majority sentiment for all regions except for Gozo shows a good outlook of Malta’s healthcare system in terms of quality. In terms of Gozo, the majority sentiment is fair but not good however there is a substantially larger portion of excellent ratings compared to the other regions.
Traffic flow and roadworks in Malta
When asked about the quality of Malta’s traffic flow and overall levels, there is a substantial portion of the sample (comprising 86%) that gave a poor rating. 11.6% rated it as fair but not good whilst 2.4% of participants gave a good rating of the matter. Whilst the roadworks process also had a majority rating on the poor side, the magnitude of this was substantially lower than that of the traffic levels and flow in Malta. 64.8% gave a poor rating of their perspective of the roadworks process in Malta, with 22.7% giving a fair rating, 11.1% giving a good rating and 1.4% rating the roadworks process as excellent.
The sentiment towards the traffic levels & flow is shared across all age groups and all regions in this sample.
Whilst the ratings of the roadworks process have a replicative nature across all age groups, barring the 16 to 17 year old cohort, when analysing the responses by region, the Southern Harbour region participants gave a substantially better rating than other regions of the country (not enough to change the majority sentiment).
Cost of Living and Working in Malta
For the sake of context, ratings pertaining to costs of living, employment conditions and salary structures are presented together. In this term, both Malta’s cost of living and the country’s salary structures are given a poor rating majority in this sample at the time of collection. The majority sentiment towards employment conditions is between a fair and poor rating, however, this variable has substantially more participants giving it a good rating compared to the cost of living and salary structures. As salary structures and cost of living share a realistic relationship, it is no coincidence that these 2 variables share a similar conclusion.
The sentiment of cost of living is shared across all age groups with a lower portion of people giving a poor sentiment across the 16-17 year old cohort. This same cohort has a higher amount of participants rating the cost of living in Malta as fair compared to the other cohorts. All regions share this sentiment with the lowest portions of poor ratings coming from the Southern Harbour and Gozo and Comino. All education levels in this sample share a majority sentiment of a poor cost of living in Malta at this point in time.
A similar picture is depicted when analysing the salary structures’ sentiment by age, region and education. The majority sentiment across all ages is that of poor salary structures being currently present with the current costs of living. The cohort between the ages of 16 and 17 shows the flattest distribution of opinions with 30% citing having good salary structures. All regions in Malta show a majority sentiment of having poor salary structures, the highest of which being emanated from the western district. All education levels echo this sentiment of poor salary structures.
Analysing the employment conditions in Malta by age, region and education level shows flatter distributions being depicted compared to the cost of living and salary structures sentiments. The majority sentiments by age group fluctuate between a fair rating and a poor rating, the strongest of which is given by the 16-17 age group towards the fair rating at 68.4%. This is the only cohort that does not outweigh the good sentiments when compared to the salary structures’ rating. The same fluctuations occur when splitting the rating of employment conditions by different regions. Every region shows a higher number of good ratings of employment conditions when compared to salary structure ratings. Different education levels also show better comparisons of employment conditions ratings when compared to salary structure ratings.
Malta's Population Perceptions
If one had to compare the ratings across all other factors in this survey, the participant’s perception of the country’s population is the worst-performing factor. 83% of the sample gave the population a poor rating, followed by 12.7% rating it as fair and 4.3% rating it as good. The sentiment across all age groups, regions and education levels is unanimous.
Quality of Air in Malta
As we can acknowledge that we are living in times where the environment and responsible quality of life are given priority, it was empirical to rate the perceptions of our participants in terms of the quality of the air in our country. 69% of the sample gave the air quality in Malta a poor rating, followed by 22.7% giving it a fair rating. 8.1% of our participants rated our air quality as good.
This majority sentiment is shared across all age demographics barring the 16–17-year-old cohort where the majority was that of a fair rating rather than a poor one. Every region and education level has expressed a majority of poor sentiments in terms of air quality.
Electricity Provision in Malta
Prior to showing the results of this survey, it is important to note that the data collection took place between the 1st and 5th of August, following 10 days of substantial power cuts across the country due to several malfunctioning components during the heatwave of the end of July 2023. Such an event has a high chance of swaying social sentiments in surveys of this manner. The majority of the sample showed a poor rating of the country’s electricity provision during the 2023 summer at 66.9%.
This majority sentiment is replicated when the sample is divided by age, region and education levels.
Political Climate & Debate in Malta
The final topic to be assessed for sentiments was Malta’s current state of political climate and debate across all parties.
Following the majority of cases except for the rating of the healthcare system, Malta’s political debate shows a majority sentiment of a poor rating at 74.1%. This is followed by 18.9% giving it a fair rating. Less than a combined 8% have a positive sentiment towards the state of the country’s political climate and quality of debate.
This majority sentiment is replicated across all regions, education levels and age groups excluding the cohort aged between 16-17 years.
Assessing the overall relative sentiment
The final question of the survey was of a relative fashion where participants were asked to compare whether this summer is better, worse or the same quality as the previous summers considering all the factors mentioned.
As this question can be thought of as a summary of the previous components’ ratings, it is of no surprise that the majority sentiment in this sample shows 72.1% classifying this summer as worse than previous ones, 24.4% classifying it as the same quality as previous ones and 3.5% stating it is better than previous ones. This sentiment is replicated across every age group, region and education level in our sample.
