‘Stupid to cap Comino tourists,’ says Captain Morgan owner Zammit Tabona

As tourism pressures threaten the pristine environment at Comino’s pictoresque Blue Lagoon, one voice from the lucrative tourist market is against plans to cap visitors to the island.

Expectedly, Captain Morgan Cruises’ owner and co-director Michael Zammit Tabona, the most prominent boat operator to Comino, is vehemently opposed to the idea of visitor capping in Comino. 

The 2016 Natura 2000 Management Plan for Comino had established that tourism at the Blue Lagoon must be controlled efficiently in order to ensure that it is “in harmony with the site’s conservation needs”. 

Zammit Tabona however claims that a capping system is not feasible. “This is a stupid idea, as such a system is impossible to administer. To whom would you give preference, if you are capping the number of boats that could berth at Comino?” Zammit Tabona asked. 

“Every 10 years or so some idiot brings up such an idea. Similarly, why don’t we also cap the number of visitors at the Blue Grotto, St Julian’s or Valletta? We can’t run this island as a semi-communist state. No one should be restricted from visiting this gem. 

“I will definitely never accept any type of capping. What would I do with my workers? Should I lay them off?” 

Comino is Malta’s latest environmental battlefront after Moviment Graffitti took direct action at the Blue Lagoon in June, by removing unoccupied deckchairs and umbrellas from the sandy beach and the jetty area that are abusively lining up the beaches before the arrival of tourists. 

Activist group Graffitti wants big boats that ferry hundreds of tourists banned from Comino's Blue Lagoon

Activists returned to Comino last weekend and published footage proving that the deckchairs were still being set up all over the jetty and the other sandy areas before any tourists arrived. 

And the sheer commercialisation of the area and the frequency of boat trips to the island continues unabated. “After a couple of hours of relative tranquillity, the large boats begin arriving and depositing hundreds of tourists onto the island. Moviment Graffitti is calling for these big boats to be banned from Comino,” the group had said. 

The 2017 document ‘Management Measures for Comino’ presented to the State by a working party of government entities, including the Malta Tourism Authority, had proposed capping the number of boats and tourists visiting Comino to conserve the island better. 

Around 4,000 visitors thronged the island in the summer of 2016 using organised cruises, and another 1,000 through water taxis from Ċirkewwa, Mġarr and Sliema. 

Asked about the effects of visitors on the ecological sensitivity of Comino, Zammit Tabona was unwilling to consider the ecological impact of intensive tourism on the island. “That argument doesn’t make sense, as Comino has been packed for years and it has never deteriorated. The Blue Lagoon is self-cleaning, thanks to the currents in the area,” Zammit Tabona said. 

He added that it was the private boats, and not the commercial ones, that polluted the bay, because they were not equipped with sewage tanks. 

And Zammit Tabona also said that he wished to see proper restaurants instead of mobile kiosks currently set up on the island. “The bins in Comino are nowhere near enough and are almost overflowing with rubbish, making the place look disgusting. There should be continuous cleaning, day and night. This is elementary.” 

With current activity in Comino still far off from pre-pandemic levels, Zammit Tabona is auguring for a return to ‘normality’ as tourism picks up. “We should not limit the visits and let’s pray to God that tourists keep arriving. The country can’t survive without tourism,” Zammit Tabona said.

Environmentalists push back

BirdLife Malta CEO Mark Sultana said capping visitor numbers in certain sites is not unheard of, adding this is already done in some historical places such as the hypogeum. In a Facebook post reacting to Zammit Tabona's statements, Sultana wrote: "You asked whether there should be capping or quotas for other sites and the answer is a simple yes, if the uncontrolled visitors would mean a hazard to biodiversity, to the resource itself or even a safety issue. Don't you have a quota or a capping for each boat you have polluting our seas and air while you pocket the money?"

Sultana said controlling access to Comino was not impossible with each boat having to book a time of arrival for disembarkation listing also the capacity. He also suggested the control measures in place and enforcement could be financed by a tax on boat trippers who disembark on Comino.

"Same goes for the hotel of course. They pay a rate per day for every patron visiting their facilities. So the funds to have a robust efficient and enforced system will be available," Sultana said.