While tourism figures for the first two months of this year show yet another worrying drop in what is now our primary industry, incredibly enough it does not seem that anyone in Maltese officialdom is unduly worried. The attitude is similar to that shown so far in relation to the economic crisis – soaring taxes, a spiralling national debt and acute downsizing measures continue to occur amid contradictory claims that Malta is moving in the right direction.
Of course it all depends on the interpretation of the word “right”. Getting off the ledge sometimes could very well be the best way forward in a desperate situation.
But back to the plight of our tourism industry. Is it not time someone rang the bell and put on the red light? Other than the Opposition, whose spokesman enjoys the obvious respect and the less-visible support of many who are actually involved in the industry, and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), there has been little or no vociferous expression of concern. It’s as if we are all waiting for some great breakthrough that would see all our worries disappear. Just like that.
Sadly, in today’s globalised environment and the sheer competition from bigger, richer and more efficient tourism markets, there simply is no hope that some fairy godmother is going to salvage an ailing industry still caught in its sixties and seventies mentality when package tourism delivered the goods, even if we didn’t deliver the services and the infrastructure. Not anymore, Malta. Pull your socks up, admit your mistakes and see what the rest have been up to while you were still hoping there could be another miraculous revival – by default – as a result of terrorism acts, natural disasters and travel restrictions elsewhere that sometimes worked in our favour in the past.
I find it ironic that while we seem to be oblivious to the hatchet job that so many of our developers are carrying out while the MEPA boys do their public pirouettes to the sad cries of utter helplessness, in places like Spain, where land is certainly available, which it is not on these minuscule islands, leading hoteliers and tourism experts are seriously warning against excessive urban development of that country’s Mediterranean resorts. They loudly claim that it is driving away foreign visitors and damaging the vital tourist industry.
If over-development of top tourist regions in Spain risks alienating holidaymakers, one need not have the foresight of Leonardo Da Vinci or H.G. Wells to assess what it can do, or has done, to ours.
The Spaniards say that foreign tourists are remaining for shorter and shorter periods in the country. This change coincides with the accelerated process of urbanisation along its Mediterranean coast and in the Balearic and Canary Islands.
They have warned that to pursue a strategy of tourism growth based on these rates of construction could transform many Spanish resorts into urban areas, with no guarantee of long-term profitability. It should be noted that this is the first time the major players in Spain’s biggest industry have echoed criticisms long voiced by environmental campaigners.
In the meantime and in stark contrast, we have our ruling politicians pushing the commercial carts of developers who have nowhere else to develop, which is why they have turned their hawkish eyes on places like Ta’ Cenc in Gozo, ix-Xaghra l-Hamra in Mellieha and the unspoilt areas surrounding the ancient village of Manikata. The lost virginity of Kalkara Valley and the scandalous breaching of the Vittoriosa bastion line in the Cottonera region are now a fait accompli. There is still so much they would want to lay their hands and heavy machinery on in the name of progress and development. But tourism as an industry is a lot more fickle than these gentlemen seem to take it for.
Spanish eyes are concerned that if present construction rates continue, water and energy consumption in these arid regions will triple, and beaches will become too small for the increasing numbers of sun-seekers. Familiar noises, no doubt, for many Maltese who are genuinely concerned that our tourism industry at this moment in time resembles a ship that has not only lost its rudder, but whose crew continues to believe that the natural tide could still guide them into some sheltered haven. The rest of us know it simply won’t. What we have, and the Spaniards don’t, are the added problems of no more available land, a crumbling sewage and waste collection system and sheer political laissez-faire.
The Spanish hoteliers blame regional authorities for promoting mass development of holiday homes, giving priority to growth by volume regardless of the fact that this is beginning to outstrip what the terrain can support. Short-term speculative development is, in other words, undermining the country’s most important industry. And this is Spain, remember, not tiny Malta where the vast majority of village and town borders and the best public swimming areas have long fallen victim to over-development and perished.
The big operators in Spain even share the Greens’ concerns for the erosion of beaches, something that may very well sound like Martian language to our developers and politicians in power. In 20 out of the 26 tourist spots examined by the Spanish experts, visitors complained over-crowding now blighted the streets and beaches. Nearly 70 per cent of top resorts offer less than six square metres of beach per holidaymaker.
Six square metres of beach per holidaymaker? That’s sheer luxury by our standards. Here in Malta you literally have to share your neighbouring sun-worshipper’s towel, and that’s even when there are no tourists about and only the locals having some fun in the sun.
In Spain, the decline in quality tourism has been a worry for some years now, as cheaper eastern European competitors have lured away those who once flocked to the land of Flamenco. And what do WE do? We just sit on our ample bums insisting all is well with our tourism
industry, enjoying the odd cruise-liner sailing into our fantastic Grand Harbour and adlibbing sweet nursery rhymes that glorify the need of unnecessary golf courses and further urbanisation while the same clique of privileged developers rush to the warm bosoms of their local bank managers.