Ambitious tourism 2050 targets contrast with more sober projections
World Travel and Tourism Council expects far lower growth than official targets
Malta’s tourism sector will grow at a slower rate than government figures predict over the next decade, according to a new report published by the World Travel and Tourism Council on Friday.
The report finds that the tourism industry in Malta now makes up 16.5% of Malta’s economy, contributing a substantial €3.6 billion to Malta’s economy last year, a full €1 billion more than 2019.
It is expected to add another billion by 2035 to reach €4.7bn the report predicts, growing by an average of 2.7% each year.
But this is far below the government’s plans as set out in Vision 2050, the government’s vision for the next quarter of a century, which says the tourism industry will grow by an average of 6-7% of gross value added until 2035.
The report also predicts significantly lower tourist spending than the lofty goals set out by the government.
According to the report, tourists will spend a total of €3.5bn while holidaying in Malta in 2035, with domestic visitors (such as locals on a weekend break in Gozo, for instance) adding a further €441m.
Malta’s Vision 2050, on the other hand, says that tourist expenditure will hover around the €7bn mark by 2035, ranging between €6.8bn and €7.2bn.
In its Vision 2050, unveiled last month, the government said it plans to increase tourist arrivals by a million over the next decade, with arrivals reaching 4.5m by 2035.
More significantly, the government says, tourists’ nightly expenditure will almost double from the current €144 to anywhere between €257 and €285 per night.
The council’s report also sheds new light on the tourism sector’s carbon footprint, with the industry estimated to be responsible for just under a third of all greenhouse gas emissions in Malta.
This appears to be on an upward trend, with emissions rising from 27.6% of Malta’s total in 2019 to 30% today.
The industry remains overwhelmingly fossil-fuel dependent, the report suggests, with 95.8% of its energy originating from coal, oil or natural gas, compared to the just over 2% from renewable sources and a further 2% from biofuels and waste.
Unsurprisingly, the UK and Italy dominate Malta’s travel patterns, according to the report.
Nineteen per cent of all arrivals are from the UK, as are 18% of outbound departures. Meanwhile, Italy accounts for 17% of arrivals and over a fifth of all departures.