Bob Dylan was right. Humans always avoid taking lessons and fail to divert the flow of events before it is too late. A recent article in this paper in July on rebalancing the economy for a better Malta, by David Marinelli, was so clear that I have been inspired by the proposals it contained. The author reminds us that the economy is like a river, it cannot be stopped but it can change course.

And we really do need to change the course of several parts of our economy. But despite Dylan telling us that we never learn, Malta will soon reach such a population suffocation level that we might just prove to be the exception that proves the rule, and learn from others.

I am thinking of the ridiculous state of our tourism sector. The crazy fixation on absolute numbers entering our airports and harbours has to stop. We need only look at what other tourist locations that have reached similar levels of overpopulation are starting to do to reduce and control the number of visitors to sustainable levels.

These towns and regions had their economic river going in the same direction as ours, towards numbers and more numbers propelled by the crass economic operators who hold no love of their own backyard environment nor show any respect for their fellow citizens living in the misery of mass and cheap tourism.

A recent series of articles in the English web version of Der Spiegel last month described the movements led by troubled and unhappy residents and courageous politicians willing and able to defy the economic operators of hotels, holiday flats, rogue taxis, mastodon cruise liners, souvenir shops, sidewalk cafes and cheap, pretend Italian, Spanish, Thai and other ethnic restaurants; not to mention massage parlours, drug pushers, night club owners and real estate developers. Tourism and travel industries seem to be choking on their own success.

The movement against the suffocation is beginning to be felt among the tourists themselves, who travel to city centres that have become crowded museums with no locals living there. The locals only go to their own cities to work and the tourists sit in local cafes and restaurants with other tourists but no locals. They go to historic bookstores and monumental sites not to buy a book or learn about the history or architecture, but to take a selfie of themselves, elbowed by other equally frantic tourists.

The tourists crowd the locals out of their public transport and crush other sweaty tourists from one bus stop to another. Not to mention the abhorrent influx of eight-hour tourists overflowing from the cruise liners that are too large for Dubrovnik, Venice lagoon, Valletta harbour or Barcelona, that emit ex­tremely high levels of toxic fumes from their chimneys and tower above medieval walls and Venetian palaces, dwarfing and uglifying these historic cities full of souvenir shops with local artefacts made in China and Vietnam.

The crazy fixation on absolute numbers entering our airports and harbours has to stop

Of course, this phenomenon is not solely a European issue. It is global. When will we ever learn?

The articles ‘How Tourists are Destroying the Places They Love’ and ‘Amsterdam Seeks to Rein in Tourists’ describe the awakenings happening in Amsterdam, Barce­lona, Rome, Malaga, Mont Saint Michel, Venice and many others.

The problem, according to these articles, lies in the fact that the global growth of mass tourism only benefits the operators of ships, hotels and tourist agencies but not the employees in these businesses who rely on lower and lower wages. Nor does this growth benefit the local populations of these extremely popular destinations.

To the chagrin and dismay of the touters of growth in volume at all costs, the local population and the employees connected with travel and tourism are awakening and beginning to revolt.

The politicians and businessmen running mass tourism and travel have forgotten the local populations in their surge for more growth and more profit.

The local populations in Venice, Barce­lona, Amsterdam, Malaga and Dubrovnik are all up in arms. Their local politicians have also woken up to the local unhappiness and constant depopulation of the city centres, blocked by tourist invasions, by harbours flooded and environmentally destroyed by monolithic monsters of the seas – those 7,000+ cruise liners that not only spout noxious fumes but also destroy the views and facades of many World Heritage Site harbours like Venice, Valletta and Dubrovnik.

Local politicians in some enlightened cities have begun to respond to the disgruntled residents’ protests, blockades and civil disobedience movements. These politicians now place the interests and welfare of the local populations higher in the hierarchy of interests, equal if not ahead of the interests of business operators, real estate firms and cruise liner companies with all their lobbying powers, graft money and pseudo Corporate Social Responsibility actions, like paying money to charity or whitewashing schools or cleaning beaches.

They begin to see through the crass interests and the past 50 years of destruction in the race for more tourist numbers and lower costs.

These politicians have taken several steps.

For example, they have put a limit on the number of cruise liners. But they have not yet placed a limit on the size of these liners entering historic harbours. Neither have they made it mandatory for liners to use clean fuel, invest in filters to capture all particles and only emit water vapour from their chimneys as the Baltic Sea harbours have done in Denmark and Sweden for all ferries.

They have set a limit for all Airbnb-type letting to 60 days per year and are soon to reduce it to 30 days per year. They oblige registration of all private houses, flats, rooms and beds to let and enforce this rule.

They have banned all new construction of hotels, whether boutique or standard, in city centres, thus limiting the number of beds available and thus the tourist influx.

They have banned the opening of new stalls and pavement shops that sell souvenirs or waffles (the so-called Nutella bars that sprout like mushrooms in Amsterdam). Pavement cafes are regulated and limited.

They have banned drinking of alcohol in streets, rowdy parties in public places, shirtless or bathing wear while strolling in cities and allowed the increased number of wardens to fine breaches on the spot, collecting payment by credit card from all those disturbing the peace in tourist and local residency neighbourhoods.

Some countries are now controlling, on the spot, all wage payment slips of all employees to see whether the minimum wage or the living wage are being given and declared for social security and tax purposes. This form of control also ensures fair competition and fair treatment of local employees who have constantly seen their incomes eroded by imported labour from EU countries with lower standards. This form of social dumping is being eradicated.

These are only a few examples of what is being done in civilised neighbouring cities that are suffering from much of the same symptoms and discomforts.

(To be continued)

John Vassallo is a former senior counsel and director for EU Affairs at General Electric, a former vice president, EU Affairs, associate general counsel, Microsoft, and a former Ambassador of Malta to the EU.

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece