Rock legend Brian May.

Rock legend Brian May and world-renowned biologist Richard Dawkins were among a host of prominent international figures condemning the result of Malta’s spring hunting referendum, amid calls on social media for a boycott on tourism.

Professor Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist and humanist author with a Twitter following of 1.1 million, wrote: “What kind of ‘man’ enjoys shooting birds on spring migration through Malta?”

Meanwhile, former Queen guitarist Brian May, who had encouraged people to vote against spring hunting during a concert in Malta last year, tweeted: “Shameful Malta decision to continue killing OUR songbirds despite great work by our Maltese friends.”

In April last year, Dr May, a well-known animal rights campaigner, had applauded the fact that Malta has a democratic process which could lead to a referendum to change the law. He said that, when the time comes, the Maltese should vote to end cruelty against the birds.

But in further tweets yesterday, the musician described the result as “a shocking victory for cruelty” and “a sad day for Malta and humanity”.

It comes down to cruelty. I felt sick

Sir John Randall, a British parliamentarian, was one of a number of people supporting a boycott on Malta in response to the result.

“Very, very disappointed. Spring hunting will remain in Malta. My boycott continues,” he tweeted.

Elsewhere, environmental organisation Blue Planet Society, with 88,000 followers, wrote: “Tourism 15% of Malta GDP. Let’s hit them where it hurts.”

Overall, according to Twitter tracking service Keyhole, the hashtag ‘boycottmalta’ was used in 447 posts between Saturday and yesterday. Moreover, the tags ‘springhunting’ and ‘maltaslaughter’ appeared 702 and 447 times respectively.

Posts originated in countries across Europe as well as the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia, India, Japan, Brazil and Chile, with a combined total reach in the millions.

Reports on the referendum also appeared in traditional media including The Guardian, BBC News and Russian news agency Sputnik. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, naturalist Bill Oddie, who was in Malta for the referendum, described celebrations after the result emerged as “a depressing comment on humanity”.

“It’s nothing to do with whether it’s in Malta or anywhere else... It comes down to cruelty. I felt sick.”

Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association president Tony Zahra, however, attempted to assuage concerns that the coverage would have a negative impact on incoming tourism.

“Past experience has shown that, although there has been negative overseas press in terms of hunting, in Malta the tourism numbers have not suffered. Indeed, in the last five years, every year has seen increases in arrival over the previous year’s figures,” he said.

Calling for Malta to “show its maturity” Mr Zahra said the result of the referendum and the laws of the country had to be respected.

“Naturally, as MHRA and as Maltese citizens we prefer to see positive pieces written about Malta as this encourages more people to visit,” he added.