The president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, Tony Zahra, has questioned the sustainability of Malta’s tourism sector ‒ let us not call it industry, which does not have the same meaning as economic sector. He said that Malta is nearing maximum tourism capacity, and that the country has probably been “too successful” at attracting low-spending concertgoers and cruise-liner visitors. He emphasised that we need to focus more on quality than on quantity.

Let us appreciate that Zahra has been involved in the tourism sector for over 50 years. He knows exactly what he is talking about. He is not a person who minces his words but you cannot fault him because of that.

We are at the peak period of activity in our tourism sector, with a news item saying we are to expect around 200,000 visitors to Malta just this week. I doubt this is good for our country, and my doubts arise from a concern I have: we are not counting the social and economic costs of such high tourism numbers.

Some are happy that tourism expenditure is likely to reach €3 billion this year, while happily ignoring any costs we are paying socially, economically and financially. We have made the same mistake with regard to the construction sector and with regard to the employment of third-country nationals. We seem to have become experts at doing a benefit analysis without doing a cost analysis as well.

The issue of quality versus quantity in the tourism sector has been there since just after independence in 1964, when we had somewhere between 150,000 and 180,000 tourist arrivals. The then tourism chief, John Pollacco, had sought to promote quality, as five-star hotels became attracted to Malta thanks to hefty incentives. In the 1970s, we lost the plot as the number of tourism arrivals increased significantly, relying mainly on tour operators. This trend continued until the arrival of the low-cost airlines.

We cannot turn back the clock, but can we start a real transformation process to make our tourism sector sustainable

In my view, the operators in the tourism sector made the definite choice to go for quantity and not for quality through their very strong lobbying in favour of low-cost airlines. They sacrificed Air Malta on the altar of Ryanair, ignoring totally the support Air Malta gave the tourism sector over its four decades of existence.

I doubt if the tourism sector is at a crossroads. With what has been happening this summer (broken-down infrastructure, contaminated bays and beaches, overcrowding, low-quality service), any suggestion that we are on the road to attract high-end tourists has proven to be baseless. I fear we have crossed the Rubicon in this case.

There may be some who believe that these pains indicate that we are indeed going through a period of transformation, and that those operators who cannot offer quality will fall by the wayside. I do not have the gift of knowing the future and may they be right.

The president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association sounded the alarm bells. Is our tourism sector sustainable? Although it may make things look simple by juxtaposing quality against quantity, I believe matters are a bit more complicated.

Can we reverse the trend we are in? Can we create the right balance between quantity and quality? Can we have the appropriate incentives to make quality sustainable? We cannot turn back the clock, but can we start a real transformation process to make our tourism sector sustainable.