After a year studying in Chicago, I was eager to visit Gozo last summer to swim in its salty, azure, blue waters, lay on the beach and tan, go out for a few drinks in the evening with friends and spend time with my family.
Last summer, I was referred to this Maltese woman who runs a creative business, so I had to go to the mainland to meet with her to discuss collaborating. This woman and I found ourselves talking about Malta in today’s state. I asked her: “But why do tourists come to Malta?” With wide eyes, she responded: “I have no idea.”
According to Eurostat, “a third of Malta is covered with built-up and other artificial areas” and is considered the most built-up place in Europe. These are numbers from 2013 and, since then, development has only got worse. The National Statistics Office reported that: “In 2023, 1,695 building permits for a total of 8,112 new dwellings were approved.”
A census report from 2021 shows that 84,055 new homes were built between 2011 and 2021, reported the Times of Malta. The same article says that, according to these 2021 statistics, “Malta now has a dwelling for every 1.75 people in the country, including children”. And these megadevelopers are Maltese, not foreign companies like in Hawaii.
I feel bad for regular people who want to make a buck by deciding to build a few apartments on a piece of land they probably inherited. Not only are they in competition with the megadevelopers but they too are adding on to the ever-growing problem.
The problem with Malta is not only overdevelopment.
The National Statistics Office found that, at the end of 2023, the number of licensed vehicles in Malta amounted to 438,567. Malta is too small a country for that many cars. Road transport not only clogs up our bypasses (a miniature version of a highway) but it also feeds into noise pollution. A European Commission study found that Malta “is the European Union’s noisiest country, with just over 30% of people saying that they suffer from some form of noise pollution”.
Walking around Malta is never pleasant due to these reasons but also the fact that the pavements are narrow, not matching and of different levels. Using the bus is an option to get from one town to another but buses don’t show up, are never on time, get stuck in traffic, are sometimes so packed that it doesn’t stop to pick up more people and takes longer because the bus routes are long.
Ask any student and they’ll tell you the same thing.
Malta’s infrastructure is so badly planned out that the island has lost its island life feel – it’s turned into an island city. Honestly, living in Chicago, which is twice the size of Malta, is more pleasant than Malta.
The Maltese flee to Gozo every weekend to get away from Malta, and, every Sunday evening, there are two-hour ferry lines down the main road to the ferry as the Maltese head back to Malta. So, if the Maltese don’t like their island, why are tourists visiting Malta?
This summer, the National Statistics Office calculated that the “total inbound tourists for August 2024 [was] estimated at 429,111”. MaltaToday recently interviewed Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary who stated: “Over the past 12 months, we’ve increased our traffic to and from the island by 24%, growing from 3.3 million passengers to 4.4 million in 2024.”
With Ryanair being a cheap European airline, and Malta being promoted heavily as a cheap party destination on TikTok, tourists that visit Malta have been noticeably low-budget tourists. Malta suffers from overcapacity during the summer months and is not compensated for it.
Malta’s infrastructure is so badly planned out that the island has lost its island life feel- Corinne Zahra
Research conducted last August by The Shift News revealed that “the Planning Authority is considering permits for at least 99 new hotels”. According to Statista, as of 2023, there were 307 hotels in Malta, which amounted to 21,623 hotel rooms. Although there is no exact number of how many restaurants there are in Malta, Business Now delved into licences issued by the Malta Tourism Authority and found that, as of 2023, there were 2,638 restaurants, snack bars, take-aways, kiosks and bars.
A 2019 study by the Central Bank of Malta found that there are about 9,000 properties in Malta listed on Airbnb. When researching, I couldn’t find concrete analysis to see if Malta needs all of these businesses to support its tourism industry.
There’s too much of the same thing in Malta because it’s easier to make money by copying everyone else; because tourists aren’t going to stop coming to Malta, right? But what if they do? What if it finally hits them that Malta is ugly? What will happen when the tourist realises that Malta is overcrowded? What would the economy do then?
Instead of attracting as many people as possible to visit Malta, promoting Malta as a luxury destination would mean less tourists and more money spent – countries like Fiji, Japan and Switzerland have this tourism model. And before someone even asks if this is possible, if Malta is capable of attracting ultra-high net worth individuals to invest €600,000 or more into the National Development Fund to, in return, get Maltese citizenship, then Malta for sure can level up itself to luxury tourists.
The Environment and Resource Authority issued a management plan for Comino back in 2022 with recommendations to cap the number of boats and tourists in Comino but this has not been done. During the summer, Comino is so packed that it feels like you’re walking in Times Square. The tourist’s worst enemy is the tourist.
When it comes to development, I’m not saying Malta should stop all construction. Instead, let’s be smarter. I know that megadevelopers think business first, so appealing to their kind hearts won’t work. They could invest their money elsewhere. Malta’s maritime industry is a perfect example. Business Today reported that: “Malta’s maritime industry adds 12% to Malta’s GDP and is responsible for over 22,000 jobs between direct and indirect employment. Yet, it seems that despite this significant contribution it remains an afterthought in political and economic discourse.”
The Malta Maritime Forum reported in 2020 that: “The maritime sector collectively generates €855 million in direct economic activity, which substantially increases to almost €2.2 billion when considering both indirect and induced impacts.”
The initiative must come from local businesses to stop selling out Malta to cheap tourism. Let’s move away from commercialisation and focus on being authentic.
Malta is the world’s tenth-smallest country in the world. Only half a million people speak our language. We are a bunch of rocks in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. The sea water is eroding us slowly – let’s make sure that we don’t erode ourselves before the sea does.
Corrine Zahra is a creative non-fiction writer from New York and Gozo. She recently graduated MA in the Humanities programme at the University of Chicago.