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18.07.19 9 EDITORIAL BusinessToday is published every Thursday. The newspaper is a MediaToday publication and is distributed to all leading stationers, business and financial institutions and banks. MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN COORDINATING EDITOR: PAUL COCKS CONTRIBUTING JOURNALISTS: MASSIMO COSTA | LIAM CARTER BusinessToday, MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN9016, Malta Newsroom email: bt@mediatoday.com.mt Advertising: afarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt Telephone: 00356 21 382741 T ourism has been on an upward trend for the past decade increasing from 1.2 million in 2007 to 1.4 million in 2012 to a staggering 2.6 million in 2018. is growth in numbers, propped by low cost air- lines and professional branding, defi nitely contrib- utes to Malta's economic success story, injecting the economy with cash which is spent here. e multiplier eff ect of tourism is undeniable as tour- ists spur a demand for a variety of services ranging from catering to recreational and cultural events. is has also contributed to make Malta a livelier place. Tourism in what were referred as shoulder months has also grown to the extent that the coun- try has become an all year destination. But this is also bound to have a direct impact on the infrastructure, energy and water demand, land use pressures, the over crowding of beaches, noise pollution and gentrifi cation of our cities. Moreover tourism itself is also contributing to the increase in foreign workers who have fi lled in niches of the labour market which are shunned by Maltese, partly because wages are considered low and partly because there are other opportunities. is makes tourism a major contributor to the increase in population we have seen in the past few years. Planning policies have been changed to allow extra fl oors on hotels over and above height limits in local plans. Added to these are mega pro- jects which also include within them hotels. All this contributes to the kind of construction mayhem which the tourist industry often com- plains about. It also creates more bed spaces, which have to be fi lled up, raising fears of over capacity and pressure to keep increasing tourist levels over and above the present record numbers. And while tourism has surely benefi tted from Valletta being the cultural capital of Europe in 2018, the capital city is now being taken over by a craze for boutique hotels, a veritable case of go- ing from one extreme (a city in decline with few accommodation facilities) to one where tourism is taking over spaces which may well be used to enrich the cultural experience of Maltese and for- eigners alike. e closure of the City Lights cinema and its re- placement by a boutique hotel comes across as a missed opportunity, considering the creative way this cinema has been put to use in recent years. Admittedly, Valletta is far more livelier than it was just a decade ago and this makes it more at- tractive to tourists and local alike. e risk is that having too many hotels may actually rob the city of its dynamism. Moreover, there have been contradictory pres- sures, with the industry caught between its desire for a quality tourism which requires a fi ve-star en- vironment while at the same time still aspiring for greater numbers of tourists. e tourist industry has also had mixed views on the proposed Gozo tunnel with some like Tony Zahra, the president of the Malta Hotels and Res- taurants Association, fearing that Gozo would lose it charm. Others like Dorothy Baldachino, interviewed in this edition of Business Today, welcome the tun- nel project, seeing a need for a permanent link be- tween the two islands, but insist on the need for Gozo remaining "a green retreat." Others yet may be less cautious seeing the tunnel as a money spinner-an easier way to bring hordes of day trippers to the island. e tourist industry has so far been largely sup- ported by local communities who see in it the promise of national prosperity and job opportu- nities. But operators in this sector must not take this for granted. e mood has changed dramatically in Mediter- ranean tourism hotspots like Venice and Barce- lona where residents are protesting against what they increasingly see as a disruption of their every day life. To avert this, the industry needs some introspec- tion. e government is also duty-bound to look at other after-eff ects, like air pollution from the use of heavy fuel in cruise liners which impacts on the harbour area. A report issued by Birdlife last year showing that Cruise ships visiting Malta belong to the worst category ranking for environmental impact in terms of emissions, should act as an eye opener. e temptation is to overlook these problems and make hay while the sun shines. But the risk in that is that by continuously fattening the goose laying the golden eggs, we risk killing it. One sure way of doing this is to ignore the local communities whose hospitality has supported the industry since the 1960s. The goose that lays the golden eggs ... and how we risk killing it

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