The streets of Paceville were buzzing on New Year’s Eve, despite tightened restrictions, dwindled tourist numbers and thousands of quarantined people.

Hundreds swarmed the bars and restaurants of Malta’s entertainment capital to celebrate the beginning of a new year, even though they were asked to leave all establishments at 1am, as per restrictions.

Paceville’s most popular cohort – the 17-30-year-olds – seemed to brave the surging infection numbers. There were several Maltese residents as well as tourists, particularly French, Italian and British visitors this year, according to the chairman of the Town Centre Management of Paceville, Philip Fenech.

“You could say it was as busy as it used to be during a regular, pre-pandemic weekend. Considering the circumstances, it was a good weekend, way better than Christmas eve,” he said.

“It seems like the surging cases around Christmas led people to shy away from entertainment places, even before the government imposed any new restrictions. But, by last Friday, many of them were back out.”

Fenech said last summer was really encouraging for the entertainment industry and business swelled between August and early November.

“We had managed to acquire a reputation that our island was a safe destination and, as a result, attracted higher-paying tourists,” he said.

All that turned around in two weeks in mid-November, when most tourists cancelled their holidays here following the rising cases.”

Fenech said Malta was mostly impacted by the drop in British, Italian, French, Spanish and German tourists and, gradually, even local people had to cancel their bookings in hotels, either out of fear of getting infected or because they were quarantined.

“As a result, Christmas Eve this year was one of the quietest I can remember,” Fenech noted.

“Even though many people still decided to cancel their restaurant bookings on New Year’s Eve, most of them ordered take outs and deliveries, so those cancellations did not impact businesses as much.”

However, Fenech warned that business will wane in the coming weeks and predicted that January and February will be a rough challenge for the entertainment industry.

“Airlines are not taking extra risks in plotting flights which they are not sure they will profit from, so our businesses are in for a rough few weeks,” he said.

It is estimated that about 30,000 people were in quarantine over New Year’s Eve, either because they were infected or because they were in contact with someone who had COVID-19.