Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1506448
10 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 AUGUST 2023 Travel-sick: fatigue from overtourism ON TikTok, the video of a down- and-out homeless man tearing about the streets of Paceville in an alcoholic stupor, plays to the sound of the Grand Theft Auto video-game music. The joke is that his unsteady gait mimics that of the video game's characters. But the playful sub- text is that frisson of crazy that runs through GTA's crime-ridden downtown, is also alive and well in Paceville. 30 years ago, Paceville had no gentleman's clubs, far less tour- ism, and cannabis edibles apart, drugs seemed to have less of the universal appeal they possess in today's liberal times. The brawls and lewd behaviour that gets easi- ly captured on smartphones today scares parents and the usual, scan- dal-prone commentariat. The British tabloids (read: The Sun) think Malta could be a new Magaluf, latching onto the cheap drink, sun and sea mantra. Noth- ing new from a news economy that thrives on the 'darker' side of tourism – even Malta's Eng- lish-language industry once suf- fered the brunt of French TV exposés claiming that Parisian teens shipped off to Malta by their parents were only being served alcohol, sun and sex, rather than grammar and vocabulary. But tawdry journalism apart, the pain of Malta's subservience to the tourism dollar is being clear- ly felt. Our well-worn metrics of tourism growth – more numbers, more beds, more money – cer- tainly tell us little about the way this wealth has become severed from its alleged trickle-down in an age of rising prices, environmental stain, construction madness, and tourism fatigue. There's certainly a greater deal of wryness about the holy grail that tourism tends to represent, when decades back in the 1980s the national tourist board's slogan read: 'Malta: where every face has a smile'. The pains of tourism The massive export value of tourism to Malta can never be understated. NSO data for June 2023 shows the monthly spend of incoming tourists was over €286 million – an average €972 spend per tourist. In six months, tourism revenues are estimated to be at over the €1 billion mark. But the visible effects of tourism's massive growth are also evidenced by packed towns and villages that have had to cater for more con- struction, higher hotels, dozens upon dozens of bus commuters waiting for a delayed bus and hop- ing to find space on board, or the disruption of AirBnbs that put out more residential units on the market for quick gains. Small (and large) investors want to open up boutique hotels anywhere if they can convince tourists to move off the beaten path – but it comes at a cost in rural areas that sacrifice ag- riculture for agritourism, attract- ing more traffic or higher-priced restaurants in areas unaccus- tomed to tourists. Then throw in the piling rubbish on the streets. The coastlines annexed by hotels for reclaimed lidos. The tradition- al meeting spots once part of vil- lage life, turned into cocktail bars for holidaymakers. It's the entire island that has been turned into an airport. "We have hit our 2019 volumes and revenues," says Philip Fenech, the Chamber of SMEs' vice-pres- ident, a veteran of the tourism industry who is also chair of Pace- ville's town centre management committee. "Because when tour- ism went into COVID cooldown, the industry was primed to pounce back and we've literally gone to pre-COVID rates." But Fenech believes this steroi- dal growth has left so much of the island's infrastructure lagging. Traffic management has suffered, garbage piles up, streets washed and cleaned in the morning are a mess by the middle of the day, and this is compounded by the related social or infrastructural pressures from an influx of foreign labour that is required as muscle to serve tourism. "I don't think anyone was look- ing at the consequence of excess capacity, such was the business confidence fuelling investment," Fenech says. "The MHRA carried out a capacity study on beds, but we need a similar study on the supply side, to give investors try- ing to claw at every single piece of action to get a reality check, and not just copying every single busi- ness concept out there in the hope of raking in some of that cash." According to the Malta hotels' lobby study by Deloitte, Malta's regulated bed stock would require 4.7 million arrivals at an average of just under seven nights each, to achieve 80% occupancy through- out the year if all the proposed and planned bed stock comes onto the market. It's a number that strikes fear in those who know the stress tour- ism brings on the country's infra- structure, such as the sewage sys- tem, which is already strained, and exacerbates the strain on tourism hotspots like Comino, Mdina and the Cittadella in Gozo. This means that to remain sustainable, hotels will need to attract double the number of tourists they attracted in 2019, with all the repercussions this will have on the country's in- frastructure. Fenech says it is a reason to pause. "There must be a market correction, because there are obvi- ous consequences on the environ- ment and land resources. Excess capacity brings about collapse, so the more efficient and well-priced businesses must push the others out. Wouldn't it be better to really take stock and for us to get a bird's eye view on tourism investment?" Whose quality tourism? Fenech scoffs at the tabloid press that feasts on stories of excess in Paceville, for decades the enter- tainment mecca that once hosted his own jazz club. But today, that square mile has undergone radical changes – more clubs and their more tolerated raucous behaviour have replaced the sedate hang- outs of yesteryear. "If you had to categorise that type of reveller as a 'lower' type of tourist, it is a mi- nority: flight costs have risen with fuel hikes and the war's inflationary effect, and even when it comes to English-language students, we've had more mature visitors than the typical hordes of youngsters." Indeed, Fenech also gives short shrift to the shrill calls for 'quali- ty tourism'. What on earth is that anyway? Whose pound is the Mal- tese entrepreneur going to refuse? "How do you even define what a 'quality' tourist is?" Fenech asks. "The spend per capita? The one who prefers history over a few la- gers? Must everything in Malta be 'deluxe'?" Fenech thinks Malta should keep chasing better standards, instead. "Quality means that, be it the humble AirBnB or some takeaway shop, there is a stand- ard business owners aspire to. And of course, the same goes for managing our national infrastruc- The summer is magic – Malta's tourism is back to pre-COVID levels with €1 billion in tourist spend over the last six months. But will the Maltese who take the pain of the growing numbers of visitors ever tell them to go back home? MATTHEW VELLA reports.