Tourism and the environment

The Times' leader of August 22, Our Brand Of Tourism, was fairly forthright in its analysis of Malta's tourism woes: "How can we expect a resurgence in tourism when our beaches do not have public toilets, when our heritage sites are poorly presented, when our countryside is dominated by rubbish and gunfire, when the urban skyline is dominated by cranes that tower over a multitude of construction sites, when our roads are full of potholes, and when many prime tourist establishments serve poor quality food at vastly inflated prices? Not even the best marketing guru in the world could successfully brand such a flawed product".

It gives nobody who loves Malta any pleasure to say that the long-predicted melt-down in Malta's tourism industry has begun. It is almost five years since, as executive president of Din l-Art Helwa, I drew attention to the private affluence and the contrasting public squalor which afflicts Malta: "It is not an exaggeration to say," I wrote, "that we are facing a crisis. I do not use this word lightly. It is a very charged word. But given the twin impacts on our tourism industry and on our quality of life of continuing as we are, I would suggest that crisis is precisely what we are facing. In the environmental and heritage fields we are in danger of killing the goose that lays the golden egg, as well as inflicting a terrible injury to our quality of life and that of generations to come".

Tourism directly contributes about 20 per cent to our gross domestic product with high multiplier effects cascading through most sectors of the economy. It is estimated that over 40,000 jobs are directly or indirectly dependent on tourism. It also generates considerable foreign exchange earnings for our hard-pressed economy. The stakes for Malta of a continuing year on year down-turn in this sector of our economy are significant. A collapse in this area could have social consequences of Argentinean proportions. If that thought is not sufficient to focus ministerial minds and to inject some urgency into dealing with the basic problems that affect our environment and, thus, directly the tourism product, then nothing will.

Who is responsible for the mess in which we find ourselves? The luckless Minister for Tourism is inevitably being fingered by friend and foe alike. It is a brutal fact of political life that when things go wrong heads start to roll. The head of the Minister for Tourism is in the tumbrel, prime candidate for the chopping block.

But is this finger-pointing entirely fair? Nothing of course in politics is fair. Perhaps more pertinently, is it right? The Times leader quite correctly stated that "the inter-ministerial tourism development and supervisory working group has been a failure, and does not have the merit of being a spectacular one since it has been missing in a whirlpool of non-action". The Prime Minister personally leads this committee.

The Minister for Tourism is at the mercy of colleagues. First among these is the Minister for the Environment, closely followed by the Minister for Infrastructure. Between them, they are virtually wholly responsible for the state of our environment and thus for the major part of Product Malta. If the Prime Minister is unable to knock their two heads together - as he has clearly failed to do - how can the hapless Minister for Tourism do it?

Who is responsible for law enforcement, or for the local councils? Not the Minister for Tourism. Who is responsible for the shameful state of Valletta? Not the Minister for Tourism. Who is responsible for the rude behaviour of taxi drivers, bus drivers, the karozzini, or the dire state of our roads? Not the Minister for Tourism.

This is not a defence of our beleaguered Minister for Tourism and Culture who has cleared failed to engender the necessary confidence in the tourism front line troops that the industry is in safe government hands and will get the support it needs. The seemingly wasteful "branding" exercise and poor marketing and sales efforts internationally have not helped. It is, however, a reflection of government ministers collectively - environment, infrastructure, home affairs, transport, finance, investment, urban renewal and roads , to answer the questions posed above - for failing to act to overcome the endemic organisational and systemic deficiencies in the way the machinery of government operates to deal with what are essentially environmental and quality of life matters that affect tourism so directly.

To misquote somebody: "It's the environment, stupid". The state of our chaotic, shabby, at times dirty, environment is at the core of our tourism product and its problems. In this field, Malta has suffered the consequences of poor leadership, poor governance, poor organisation and inadequate human and financial resources. The inability to enforce the law on the environment is a sad reflection of the lack of political will, as well as the totally inadequate resources devoted to law enforcement by the Police Force and other authorities. Retribution under the law is lacking. And retribution is the only language most of our compatriots understand, not self-regulation. There exists a dearth of proper prioritisation and co-ordination which can only be rectified by having a well thought out recovery master plan - a National Plan For Sustainable Development, as we have consistently advocated, but over which the Minister for the Environment continues to drag his feet.

How can a government expend so much political capital recklessly extending construction development zones when there is no national requirement to do so - a gross and wilful act of political chicanery that will further undermine our tourism product? And, at the same time, unbelievably, how can the government ignore the pressing physical conditions that surround our tourists and affect the visitor experience in Malta? The external conditions affecting tourists' lives, to which The Times leader alluded, are essentially and largely the responsibility of the Minister for the Environment. Litter, dumping, illegal hunting and trapping, gross over-development, construction blight, pollution, loss of the natural landscape, urban and suburban creep, damage to our ecology and wildlife, illegal boathouses and caravans, filthy beaches - need I go on? These can all in the main be laid at the door of our Minister for the Environment.

As the lady said: Vote George: Get... well, Get Lost is what he would say. Until there is a change there, our tourism product will continue to languish. Malta's vital tourism industry could well be in terminal decline. Unless there is a radical reversal of attitude and approach, Minister George Pullicino may well prove to be its chief undertaker.