Gonzi, the PM who gave Malta Isle of MTV and Ryanair, doesn’t like ‘party island’ vibe

Here is a fun fact: gentleman’s clubs, Isle of MTV, and cheap tourists hopping on a €20 flight to Malta for weekend bingeing actually happened under Lawrence Gonzi’s premiership. 

But now a Facebook post gone viral has the former Nationalist Party leader complaining about the notoriety Malta has garnered as some “new Magaluf”, based on reports in British tabloid and rag-of-choice for Magaluf lovers, The Sun. 

Gonzi believes Malta’s tourism offering for partygoers who want cheap drink and easy access to CBD edibles – as professed in The Sun – is some high-water mark for the state of tourism in Malta. 

“Can some bright spark tell me what’s happening with Maltese tourism,” he said referring to the “shameful picture” painted of the island in The Sun. “We’re seen as an island for Britons to enjoy good good, cheap drink and cannabis... Malta requires quality tourism. Millions were invested in boutique hotels and five-stars... instead of quality tourists enjoying the beauty, history and culture of Malta, we’re packing cheap foreign workers eight at a time in the same apartment.” 

But this rant seems to betray Gonzi;s own record in ushering in a new era of mass tourism which laid the very foundations of what this new breed of tourists seeks: cheap airfares and accommodation, and all-round entertainment. 

Lawrence Gonzi's Facebook rant based on reporting by British tabloid The Sun

When low-cost airlines were brought over to Malta with a generous subsidy on their landing fees – the route support scheme – the man in charge was Lawrence Gonzi. Within just a few years, Ryanair’s path to dominance had become clear. In 2009, Air Malta boss Joe Cappello had declared that Malta was “already dependent on Ryanair”, and predictd that its increased seat capacity would give it “a much stronger negotiating power” in future discussions with the government. Today, Ryanair is the owner of Malta Air, in which the Maltese government owns a token shareholding, and has a base of aircraft stationed here. 

It was right then that Malta’s new era of mass tourism was heralded, with a €1.2 million subsidy on landing fees for Ryanair and other low-cost carriers. By 2013, that subsidy had grown to €4.5 million. 

Effectively, Ryanair’s economies of scale opened up Malta to new catchment areas of travellers from unknown European cities and backwaters. That meant anyone who could secure a cheap holiday in Malta, was able to come over – not just the hackneyed ‘quality tourist’ living near the capitals served by Air Malta. Once the national airline’s pricey routes were short-circuited by Ryanair, the mass market of ‘underserved’ towns took the upper hand. 

But in the end, it was all done to serve a hungry tourism industry that is never sated unless Malta can only serve as a place of all-year entertainment for the paying customer. 

It was also under Gonzi that in 2007, the Malta Tourism Authority took a decisive turn to wean the island off the ageing demographic of nostalgic Brits, to appeal to a youth market. Dovetailing with the island’s development as a centre for remote gaming companies – which ushered in a new labour market of Scandi gaming bros and skilled EU workers – Malta began to host Isle of MTV. 

“We invite music lovers from all over Europe to come and experience what Malta is all about: music, fun, sun, sea, history and so much more,” said Gonzi’s tourism secretary Mario de Marco back then. It was music, fun, sun and sea... then history, in that order of importance. 

It only stands to reason that for the prime minister who presided over Malta’s wholesale investment in party culture and low-cost travel – not to mention the slow proliferation of so-called ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ in Pacevile – his complaints about “quality tourism” ring hollow. 

If anything, it is a fallacy that ignores the basic economic transaction that tourism is. When the hotels lobby demanded cheaper airfares to Malta, Ryanair and EasyJet were brought in to bring over the masses. Which politician thinks a euro is worth less if it is spent in a Paceville dive rather than at the St John’s Co Cathedral? 

And it was after 2013 that Labour’s maddening planning deregulation allowed five-star hotels to build higher and take in more tourists. The rush generated hundreds of new B&Bs and AirBnB situations, as well as the mushrooming of boutique hotels right ahead of 2018’s Capital of Culture year.

Rising tourism, rising fatigue 

Overflowing rubbish in Sliema and St Julian's is also a consequence of tourism and bad neighbourliness by itinerant workers

The contradiction of Malta’s booming tourism records is that the island has been turned into an airport of sorts catering simply for the itinerant dollar. 

Malta’s chief tourism lobby, the MHRA, last week was lauding rising tourism numbers set to surpass the pre-COVID levels of 2019. Yet only two weeks ago – the same lobby that wanted larger and more hotels – complained that Malta’s reputation was suffering of rising levels of refuse, lack of upkeep, lack of enforcement, and over-construction. “We need to take the bull by the horns as the situation in our streets is in a dire state and will do nothing but put off tourists and their families and friends from ever considering coming back again to our islands,” the MHRA said. 

Those are complaints expressed on a daily level by Maltese nationals, many of whom do not necessarily directly depend on the business tourists bring. And while such concerns are no less valid when the MHRA expresses them, it does point to a truism about what makes a tourist destination attractive: a country’s beauty is ultimately reflected in its liveability, the judges of which are Maltese nationals who live cheek-by-jowl with these inconveniences. 

Gonzi’s complaint is true, insofar as rowdy tourists who come for a bawdy weekender are a nuisance any time of the year. But once the door to low-cost airlines and sun-and-sea marketing was flung open, who gets to decide how the lager-drinking yobs spend their cash in Malta? 

The non-stop growth of tourism only goes hand in hand with the devouring nature of the construction industry in Malta. And the voices least heard of all remain those of the Maltese people, routinely ignored by administrations joined at the hip to the rich business lobbies. 

The point is made more eloquently by the young Nationalist MP Eve Borg Bonello, whose video denouncing the levels of overflowing rubbish in Sliema and St Julian’s points at the malaise residents endure due to the inefficient monitoring of the environmental consequences of tourism or bad neighbourliness from itinerant workers.