Editorial

A travel journalist on The Independent newspaper of London recently ran an article in which she highlighted Malta's potential to become the new Ibiza for "clubbers". Clubbers, for those not familiar with the expression, are those people, mostly young, who organise their holidays around the enjoyment of dance music clubs. Golfers do much the same with golf courses and golfing holidays.

The newspaper article extolled the possibilities offered by the club scene in Malta under the heading Out Of The Way Grandma, Malta Is For Clubbers. "Forget Ibiza," the journalist wrote, "Malta, traditional favourite of package holiday-makers, is now a magnet for Europe's young and restless." The writer sang the praises of the island's thriving dance scene last summer saying it represents superb value "with huge open-air clubs and big-name acts, such as Tiesto", signifying Malta's ascent to the upper echelons of dance music destinations alongside those in Brazil, Berlin, Budapest and Istanbul.

By happy coincidence, this article appeared shortly before one by the much-respected Louis Farrugia, the new chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority, entitled A Sustainable Tourist Industry. Mr Farrugia's arrival is indeed welcome for Malta's tourism industry. His business experience, good judgment and sheer feet-on-the-ground common-sense ap-proach should serve this vital industry well at a critical time in its evolution.

He set out the objective well: "We need to ensure that our product proposition, our communications strategy, the accessibility of our island all add up to bringing the maximum number of tourists spending the maximum possible per head." He rightly argued for constantly re-examining what our tourist product is. "Is it our sun and sea, or our history and culture that should be the main focus and ingredients that attract our tourist?"

This question goes to the heart of the problem with Malta's tourism. It is the unresolved dichotomy that has hounded the country's tourism strategy ever since it embarked on this vitally-important economic path almost 60 years ago. For reasons of expediency, the powers-that-be always opted on the whole for mass tourism, paying only lip-service, until recently, to the island's outstanding history and culture. We have sought to hunt with the mass tourism hounds and run with the cultural hares and, some would argue, Malta's product has not been particularly successful at either.

Could clubbing in Malta help it to become the new Ibiza? Is it a "sub-product" to be placed alongside "our English language teaching, business conferencing and our diving products", attracting tourists in their own right? Would clubbing make Malta a better value proposition than it is today? Would this merely result in higher numbers? Or will it serve to contribute to a more "complete" programme that Malta would be able to offer potential visitors?

The history of clubbing in Ibiza has been notoriously double-edged. On the one hand, it has attracted young clubbers in their thousands, prepared to dance through the night. But, on the other, it has brought with it "lager louts", anti-social behaviour and noise. In an island about half the size of Ibiza and with almost four times the population, would it be wise to try to expand this segment of Malta's tourism product beyond what we have already? What will be the costs and to what benefit?

Malta, another Ibiza? A little careful thought is likely to lead to the logical conclusion.