Tourist raids and Italian police: A PR disaster

The multiple videos making the rounds on social media of unruly young tourists engaging in all sorts of uncivil behaviour must have hit a nerve somewhere in government.

In a reactive strike, over the weekend, the police carried out a targeted enforcement operation in St Julian’s, Paceville, Swieqi, Pembroke and San Ġwann.

The operation, we were told in a police press release, was primarily aimed at enforcing the law that bans supermarkets and retail outlets from selling alcohol after 9pm. Five outlets are expected to be charged for breaching the law.

But the police inspections were also intended to clamp down on public disturbance, illegal parking, dangerous driving, loud music, waste disposal and illegal substances. The press statement gave no information as to whether the police issued any charges related to these offences.

The police action was welcomed by the tourism industry lobby group, MHRA, which called on the authorities to provide the police with “stronger legislative and operational support”.

But a one-off exercise will do very little to placate growing discontent among residents over uncivil behaviour, particularly by young tourists. It will have to be a sustained enforcement effort over the summer months. And in the MHRA’s words, this will be need to be supported by “clear public guidelines and visible signage in high-traffic areas to establish behavioural expectations”. In this way, tourists would know what is expected of them.

The targeted police action was a positive development but its tardiness shows the authorities were caught napping. Unruliness, is not something that suddenly landed on Malta’s shores this summer. Indeed, in October last year the prime minister was making the case that tourism must not compromise residents’ quality of life.

The government should have anticipated the problems and before the summer prepared a coordinated approach to tackle law and order in tourist hot spots and their immediate neighbourhoods.

At the start of the summer season, the home affairs minister should have sat down with other colleagues in Cabinet and addressed a press conference to highlight the coordinated action that will be taking place, including targeted police patrols and enforcement, improved waste management and cleaning of public areas.

None of this happened and after a series of complaints by residents and local councils of unbecoming behaviour by young tourists, mostly holidaying in short-let apartments in residential areas, the police finally decided to act. It was evidently a knee-jerk reaction as Malta got lampooned on social media with videos of youngsters urinating in public, having sex in full public view, shouting and causing mayhem in the middle of residential streets, partying loudly on balconies, hanging half naked from rooftop balustrades, spraying powder from fire extinguishers onto passers-by, and trying to climb onto street sculptures.

And knee-jerk reactions tend to communicate the wrong message, especially when the problem was known and could have been anticipated—at least if the government stopped to listen to local councils negatively impacted by cheap tourism.

It is this inability to be proactive that undermines other useful initiatives like the roping in of Italian police officers to help patrol tourist areas. The Home Affairs Ministry and the police only confirmed the presence of eight Italian police officers on the ground in Malta when a media outlet learnt of the initiative.

And while there is nothing wrong with such police exchanges because they foster cooperation and camaraderie across jurisdictions—Maltese police officers have done similar jobs abroad—they simply send the wrong message when the authorities are not upfront about such plans.

To make matters worse, the news emerged in the middle of a crisis, giving the impression that the government was trying to regain control of a situation by relying on foreign assistance. The outcome is a PR disaster for the government and does little to placate public discontent.