Deputy Prime Minister and Tourism Minister Ian Borg said recently that the government intends to shift Malta's tourism sector toward quality tourists by strategically using existing funds, rather than increasing the overall marketing budget.

Earlier this week, the National Statistics Office reported that inbound tourists for the first nine months of 2025 amounted to 3,075,483, that is an 11.7% increase over the same period in 2024.

While it is true that Malta has overcome its tourism seasonality issue which was a problem a few years ago, the sheer increase in tourism numbers is staggering. Malta is a small country with finite space and an overpopulation problem. The impact overpopulation has on traffic, sewage infrastructure, garbage collection issues so on and so forth is very evident.

Tourism is Malta's largest economic sector, but a shift in this sector is needed. For too long the focus has been on tourism numbers. And those numbers cannot keep on rising. Increasing numbers means the need for more tourism infrastructure, less space on beaches, more services for the sector, and the intensified need to tackle the waste problem from short-let apartments - here we are referring to garbage bags being taken out on the wrong day for instance, being left on the street until the next day.

The best way to minimise the negative impacts of tourism while retaining all the positives it brings to the country, is to attract higher quality tourists while leveling off the numbers.

It has been spoken about for years, but it is good to see the Tourism Minister mentioning it. Borg was asked by this newsroom what the government's approach towards sustainable tourism will be. Borg said that, for example, investing in cultural or music-related activities during the shoulder months, rather than the peak summer season, would better position Malta as an art and cultural destination for foreign visitors. "I believe that you do not need more budgeting for marketing; it is the manner that we use it, and there will be a shift on how we will use these same funds," he said. On airline routes, Borg said that the government would prioritise developing certain new routes over short-haul ones, as part of the strategy to attract higher-value tourists.

Indeed the recent news that Malta will have direct flights to New York is a good step in the right direction.

Malta cannot continue increasing tourism numbers. It is just not a sustainable strategy. The numbers need to level out, and then by attracting higher quality tourists who spend more -  with one way being, as Borg said, the way Malta is advertised abroad - the country could bring in more funds without increasing tourism numbers. The government needs to have a long-term plan as to how to go about this.