The recent incident involving a bouncer and an immigrant has provoked an outcry regarding security measures in the area. That this incident led to the death of a person and that this person happened to be an immigrant may have led to the issue becoming more emotional, as it got embroiled in the wider issue of illegal immigration and its ramifications on employment opportunities. This incident is in itself a very sad one; but it is not any sadder because the victim is an immigrant.
The outcry is no different to whenever there is a fatal incident in Paceville, and we have had a couple in the past. This newspaper in its editorial of last Tuesday called for the calling of a "Paceville summit". We certainly need to address the issue of law and order in this area. However, I would like to look at the issue from a different perspective as it has an economic impact as much as a social impact. I do not want to sound callous as I am not trying to give an economic value to a human life. That can never be.
On the other hand, we cannot ignore the fact that Paceville is regarded by Maltese and tourist as Malta's top entertainment location where the level of business runs into millions of euros every year. As incidents of this nature have an economic impact as well. It is this economic dimension that I would like to address without minimising the other dimensions of this incident. It needs to be appreciated that although fatal incidents are thankfully very few and far between, it cannot be stated that Paceville is free from violence. Serious and less serious scuffles break out continuously, the incidence of sexual harassment is not insignificant, while the level of drug taking is certainly not to be ignored.
Fatal incidents are a culmination of a number of minor ones that go unnoticed and unchecked. Being Malta's top entertainment location, we need to appreciate that Paceville is an integral part of the product that we offer our tourists, and one would be correct to ask if this is the type of image that we want to project of our top entertainment location. From a social perspective, it would be ideal if Paceville got rid off all forms of crime; from an economic perspective it would be equally ideal.
We keep talking about promoting Malta for its cultural heritage, for the various possibilities of special interest holidays, for leisure activities ranging from gambling to yachting, as a venue for conference and incentive activities. We are also moving, whether knowingly or not is another matter, towards shorter rather than longer stays by tourists and towards direct individual business as opposed to pre-packaged tour operating business.
All this requires Malta to have an evening entertainment location that can exceed the expectations of our foreign visitors. That location can only be Paceville, but does it really exceed the expectations of our foreign visitors?
A number of questions need to be posed. Should there be a curfew for persons under a certain age? It is not enough not to serve them alcohol or to bar them from entering clubs and bars. Should we have a rule that beyond a certain time of the evening, persons under the age of eighteen should be at home and not elsewhere? France has something similar, so it is not as outrageous as it may sound. Should we also have a rule which gets clubs and bars to close by a certain time, say two o'clock in the morning? The Paceville residents would certainly love it, but I also believe that it would make economic sense.
When we speak of promoting Malta for its nightlife, most operators in the tourism sector end up at a loss, wondering what there is to promote in our product. We need to sort out the law and order issue in Paceville, but we also need to determine what physiognomy we want to give Paceville such that it ends up being a real enhancement to our tourism product and therefore to our economy. The economics of Paceville should not be ignored!