As temperatures soar and tourist arrivals swell, Mediterranean countries, including Malta, are under pressure to reimagine a tourism model that climate change and socio-economic issues are making increasingly untenable.
The government has announced that over 940,000 passengers passed through the Valletta cruise port in 2024, breaking a record registered in 2019. Tourism Minister Ian Borg argues: “We want cruise passengers to enjoy their experience and put our country on their bucket list for a longer holiday next time round”.
Almost nine million passengers flew through Malta International Airport in 2024, a 15 per cent growth compared to 2023. Malta Tourism Authority CEO Carlo Micallef said the significant airport foot traffic growth was “good news”.
It is certainly good news for thousands of businesses in Malta who rely on tourism. It is good news for low-cost airlines that now dominate the flow of passengers to and from Malta. It is much less so for those who fret about mass tourism’s sustainability on an island with severe physical limitations and inadequate infrastructure.
Industry policymakers and operators must move away from doublespeak that deliberately obscures, distorts, or reverses the consequences of overtourism and follow the best practices to manage the industry as many other countries do.
Countries like Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and France are switching to strategies based on optimising tourism management, away from just promotion. Mediterranean countries with booming mass tourism are beginning to react to widespread public disgruntlement.
Like other popular tourism destinations, Malta has a growing housing affordability problem. The solution is not to promote more construction projects that have irreversibly ruined our urban and rural environment in the past decade.
The cost of overtourism on our strained physical infrastructure is not being acknowledged enough. For instance, Malta has one of the most expensive processes for producing drinkable water.
In a June 2024 report, the Greek tourism ombudsman argued that “the country needs to reduce construction and protect water resources to maintain healthy tourism”.
The government’s narrative on its strategy for socio-economic development remains obscure mainly because it is frequently incoherent and not underpinned with a credible implementation plan.
The mass tourism model that predominates in the local market depends on low-skill imported labour, that is the main cause of the overpopulation problems the country is facing.
Tweaking the administrative processes to discourage tourism operators from demanding more work permits for third-country nationals will never be enough to bring about the transformation the tourism industry needs to prosper in the longer term.
And then, of course, there’s inflation. As demand surges, even mediocre restaurants offering subpar food and service can justify inflated prices, knowing that a steady stream of tourists will pay regardless of quality.
This artificial price hike does not just affect visitors; it seeps into our everyday life. When mass tourism fuels unchecked inflation, it raises an urgent question: at what point does a booming tourism industry come at the expense of the very people who call this place home?
Tourism policymakers and other stakeholders must stop living in denial about the existential threats the industry faces due to climate change and the negative socio-economic impact of mass tourism on our communities.
Tourism will always be a vital pillar of our economy, but it’s time for the government and the tourism authorities to acknowledge and address the growing consequences of overtourism.