Carmel Cacopardo

Over-tourism is a double-edged sword. You may get the initial impression of increasing economic benefits. Then you realise, that, after all, maybe, not all is well. Not just economically. Over-tourism exposes our local communities as well as the environment to substantial and unnecessary risks.

Around three years ago the Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) published a study entitled Carrying Capacity Study for Tourism in the Maltese Islands. This study, carried out by Deloitte and financed by the European Social Fund, pointed out to an excess capacity of touristic beds, then available or in the pipeline, as a result of regulatory approval. Close to 5 million tourists per annum would be required at an average 80 percent occupancy of the available beds in order to utilize adequately the accommodation already in existence as well as that approved by the authorities but still in the pipeline.

This excess capacity comes at a price.

Three years ago, in these same pages, there were already clear warnings of a potential bloodbath awaiting the tourism industry if it does not adjust to the developing reality. A report entitled “There will be blood” (TMIS 2 October 2022) quotes Philip Fenech, Deputy President of the Chamber of SMEs, issuing a stark warning “if the market does not regulate itself, there are going to be collapses”.

Philip Fenech was alerting the tourism industry to take heed of the early warning contained in the Deloitte report and to plan ahead on the basis of a careful understanding of the underlying facts.

A number of operators in the tourism industry, clearly prefer making hay while the sun shines. They tend to ignore warnings and are not interested in applying the brakes. However, it is not only the industry which should pause to think and plan. Common sense should also lead the authorities to pause and assess the consequences of the laissez-faire which they have encouraged over the years. This primarily applies to both the Planning Authority as well as to the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA).

When we are facing a considerable glut of tourist beds, the Planning Authority (PA) should, for example, think twice as to whether it makes sense to consider changes to the Villa Rosa Local Plan, facilitating more over-development. If the proposed changes materialise, instead of addressing the over-tourism we face, it will be made much worse than it already is. This is in addition to the other permitted large-scale developments which are further fuelling the speculative short-let market.

Similarly, the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) is ignoring the impacts on our local communities not just through those properties already licensed for short-lets, but also with those left to operate without being licensed.

Properties licensed for short-lets should not only be assessed on the state of the properties themselves. The assessment should be extended to consider impacts on the residential areas in our local communities. The Local Councils should be taken on board in order to establish clear criteria to ensure that licensed short-let properties do not strain local services or disrupt unnecessarily our local communities.

Unfortunately, this is not being done. It is consequently resulting in a slowly developing turismophobia which has yet to attain the levels of disdain in other Southern European touristic hubs.

It was way back in 2008 that Catalan anthropologist Manoel Delgado described turismophobia as a mixture of repudiation, mistrust and contempt for tourists and tourism. Obviously, it is not the tourist who is the ultimate cause of all this. As, at the end of the day, all this is caused by the unchecked speculative activity going on in the turistification of our localities. As aptly stated in street protests in Madrid and Barcelona: their greed brings us ruin!

All of this is encouraged by authorities who should know much better. To put it briefly, at the end of the day, over-tourism is a failure of the authorities in carrying out their regulatory duties.

Carmel Cacopardo is ADPD-The Green Party’s Deputy Chairperson

First published in The Malta Independent on Sunday: 13 July 2025