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Matthew Vella
Can low cost carriers truly bring Malta out of the tourism doldrums? Air Malta’s reaction to the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association’s report on LCCs claims the advent of 800,000 more tourists can only bring more stress upon the island’s infrastructure.
Among such “high-risk” strains would be the need for hotels to organise more coach transfers and for government to increase public transport routes, and get tourist venues such as the Malta Experience, prehistoric temples and other museums to absorb higher volumes of travellers.
For anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain, who has written about the impact of tourism in Malta, the prospect of mass tourism stands to affect the Maltese quality of life negatively in a densely populated island.
“In short, more tourists will mean more discomfort for more Maltese, especially those who want to find a place on the pavement in Valletta, a seat in the bus, and a place along the seaside in this hot weather. The increase will negatively affect your quality of life.”
Boissevain first arrived in Malta 50 years ago, as a director of the CARE aid programme, and in 1965 published the seminal Saints and Fireworks: Religion and Politics in Rural Malta. As early as 1974, Boissevain had already warned of the urgent need to examine the likely long-range effects on the quality of life of the steady increase in tourism.
“Most mass tourists want to go where there is comfortable room for them along the seaside. They do not want to spend it in a built-up, urbanised, rather tatty environment that does not really have the space to accommodate them comfortably. I think Malta’s sell-by date as a seaside tourist destination has been passed. It is time to rethink tourism. Arranging for an influx of 800,000 bargain hunting tourists is not likely to improve your quality of life,” Boissevain says.
The prospect, according to the anthropologist, would mean an influx of less well-off tourists looking for cheaper accommodation and cheap transport. With the extension of four and five-star hotels which have cut-priced budget hotels out of the market, Boissevain has doubts over whether the “St Julians-St George’s Bay ghetto of luxury hotels” can afford cutting prices any further.
“There is also the problem of transport. How are 800,000 tourists going to travel around Malta. Most will not be able to afford hire cars. Your taxis are driven by pirates. Your bus service is unable to cope now. The buses from Paceville and Sliema to Valletta are now so crowded that tourists and locals have to wait too long. Think of what the increase in the number of tourists is going to do to the already filthy tempers of so many of the bus drivers.”
Boissevain also suggests, somewhat controversially, that the new arrivals will fuel existing racial tension as more people with dark skins descend upon the island, claiming it would further damage Malta’s reputation as a tourist-friendly country.
“Tourism has gone down, and this decline I think has more to do with the state of Malta and its deteriorating infrastructure, than the price of Air Malta travel.”
Air Malta has claimed it stands to lose half of its passengers if Irish carrier Ryanair sets up a six-aircraft base in Malta. But MHRA says the loss will be ‘just’ 15 per cent if Ryanair scales down its base to four aircraft, which would result in 400 jobs liable to be lost at Air Malta.
The national airline however fears it will have to shed a massive 75 per cent of its workforce – 1,400 jobs – in order to survive Ryanair’s six-aircraft onslaught.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
Links:
www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/07/09/t1.html
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