The claim is made that tourism in this country needs to attract clients of a higher quality and it is justified. In this way we could ease the excessive wear and tear that mass tourism is placing on facilities, on infrastructure and on the island’s attractions, as well as mitigate the negative impacts on their well being felt by Maltese ctiizens in their own country.

Lately the tensions that have been experienced in Maltese society in this area were quite significant. Such tensions, it is argued, will diminish with the change to new forms of tourism.

In all this, a question remains pending: What are the upmarket tourism niches that could be exploited?

In the replies one gets, new ideas are scanty. To be convincing, solutions proposed should name particular activities and attractions that one should go for, while showing how and why they could be useful and feasible. Above all they have to provide a realistic response to the problem regarding whether the environment in which we are now living allows for the development of a tourism that can really provide a high level experience in all senses of the word.

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MOMENTUM

The campaign for elections to the European Parliament has gradually been gaining momentum. The profile of the candidates who across the political spectrum will be contesting is being established and an interesting mix is emerging of persons with political experience and others having a variety of professional qualifications. All are correctly emphasizing their “European” credentials by way of showing that if elected, they will personally be able to discuss and negotiate competently on European issues. After all, that will constitute the basis of the parliamentary assignment for which they are candidates.

Even so however, one would think that as will be happening in most other member states, the basis of the campaign will relate to the internal political situation, at least with regard to how voters decide to vote for a given party or for that matter if they decide decide to abstain.

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FOREIGNERS IN MALTA

The presence among us of so many foreign citizens covering a wide range of financial income and of life styles has created new political and social realities for the Maltese population. Social tensions are coming to the surface which due to the social media are rarely kept hidden. It is becoming increasingly clear that we need a robust policy to define the space of foreigners living here and to protect both their interests and those of the Maltese population.

An aspect that is frequently overlooked is that this is not the first time in the history of these islands that foreigners were living here in big numbers. In their days, the Knights together with the servants, the soldiers and the slaves they brought along with them, accounted for a significant part of the population. Similarly in colonial times, British soldiers and sailors with their families became an essential part of the country’s way of life.

What is strange is that few memories seem to have been transmitted as to how the mix between foreign and local inhabitants developed concretely. What kind of tensions did it give rise to and how were they contained?