Within its relatively small but densely utilised space, the locality of Paceville perhaps encompasses and represents a microcosm of all the rapid changes and challenges that Malta faces today: the search for co-existence between different types of residential development, the need to protect what is classic and indigenous versus the urge to modernise, the demand for different, sometimes conflicting types of entertainment and the constant search for a fair, working balance between self-regulation and rigid policing. 

From the tourism perspective, Paceville and its immediate surroundings consist of a multiplicity of offers: a huge share of Malta’s quality hotel accommodation, a diverse catering offer, a substantial chunk of Malta’s meetings venues, together with a varied coastal offer including a sandy beach and an indented rocky foreshore, informal accommodation, nightlife spots and a vibrant bar scene.

All of this jostles for space, sometimes uncomfortably, with a resilient resident community which actually pre-dates the tourism and entertainment mecca Paceville has become today.

As is wont to happen in places which, through accident or design, become hotspots of popular convergence, stresses and strains start to appear and accumulate with the passage of time, leading to the creation of complex pressures which eventually become a nightmare to manage as well as mitigate.

This is mostly due to the fact that such complex pressures are generally, and unsuccessfully, addressed through simplistic, one-sided solutions which ignore the complexity of the problem and are doomed to failure from the inception stage.

As a result of this, what initially started off as a series of small nuisances and minor inconveniences eventually kept growing until a point of no return was reached and a survival of the fittest game ensued.

This to the detriment of all those elements which were made to succumb to stronger forces.  Elements whose loss eventually only served to weaken the locality’s overall charm, offer and attractiveness as the vibrant mix of yesterday’s Paceville slowly started giving way to an increasingly unvaried, standardised and sterile location plagued by infrastructural shortcomings and old problems disguised as contemporary ones.

What initially started off as a series of small nuisances and minor inconveniences eventually kept growing until a point of no return was reached

This is the Paceville which exists in 2016: a popular magnet for locals and visitors, a place which never sleeps, a place where established businesses, residents and guests strive for stability and continuity in a locality featuring continuous heavy development and unsustainable pressures beset by a weak infrastructure and non-coping administrative responses due to obsolete mechanisms which have changed little in response to the locality’s realities and needs. 

All in all, a place which should ostensibly comprise one of Malta’s prime locations in the entertainment field but which in reality has been abandoned to its own devices in the forlorn hope that someone or something out there will eventually manage what has become unmanageable.

All of this was set to remain the norm until the recent announcement by the Planning Authority of a master plan for Paceville to be developed by international infrastructure and planning experts Mott MacDonald and Broadway Malyan. This is an approach which is definitely superior to the fragmented efforts attempted to date and one bound to lead to a vastly improved locality while achieving a greater sense of balance for all the stakeholders in the area, be they residents, investors, guests or visitors.

The Malta Tourism Authority is an actively involved stakeholder with a strong interest in the sustainable development of Paceville.  It has various interests in a number of fields, including the provision of a quality tourism offer, enforcing laws and regulations pertaining to tourism service providers, managing the Blue Flag beach at St George’s Bay and contributing financially to initiatives such as additional cleansing, a more extensive security presence and the installation and manning of a network of CCTV points for monitoring and ensuring a quick response in areas where illicit activities traditionally took root due to their being off the main thoroughfares of the locality.

It is therefore with huge satisfaction that the Malta Tourism Authority reacts to the big opportunities arising from the master plan.  The plan is formulated on the basis of a clear understanding of all the major issues faced by Paceville and promises to address these issues in an inclusive and holistic manner, in lieu of the fragmented and less successful approaches tried until now.

It is a plan which recognises the pressing needs of the locality and does not shy away from bravely estimating the real price tag behind the investment being proposed. An impressive master plan that leads to the paradigm shift necessary to detach Paceville once and for all from the current status quo, which leads it to nothing but the certainty of an uncertain future. 

A plan which can also eventually act as a catalyst for the upgrading and regeneration of other rundown tourism localities elsewhere on Malta.

Leslie Vella is deputy CEO, Malta Tourism Authority.