The link between sustainable tourism, tourism carrying capacity and overtourism : perspectives from Malta

Abstract

Like many other islands in the Mediterranean, Malta depends highly on tourism. Although various national tourism strategies for the Maltese Islands refer to sustainable tourism as an objective, in reality the practices actually adopted by successive governments were intended mostly to increase tourism inflows - considering the ever-increasing number of visitors as an achievement. This so-called "astounding success" in attracting tourists to Malta was laced with dark overtones of overtourism, such as a construction frenzy, high rate of waste generation, overuse of the infrastructure including the sewerage, traffic congestion, overcrowding, delays in public transport and others.

This chapter describes the tourism scene in Malta, referring to two interlinked concepts frequently discussed in the context of overtourism, namely (a) carrying capacity and (b) sustainable tourism. The concept of tourism carrying capacity generally refers to domestic space and resources and is often applied to the current generation while sustainable tourism has a broader, international dimension and emphasises the need to take account of the wellbeing of future generations. Due regard to carrying capacity can be considered as a requisite for sustainable tourism as it serves as a fundamental criterion for balancing tourism growth with environmental and social well-being.

The study is structured into five sections. Section 2, which follows this introduction, gives a brief account of the tourism scene in Malta. Section 3 discusses the concepts of carrying capacity, sustainable tourism and overtourism referring to the literature, highlighting their similarities and differences. The same section links these concepts with overtourism in Malta. Section 4 proposes strategic directions aimed at addressing overtourism in Malta and discusses the major hurdles that these directions are likely face in their implementation. The concluding section summarises the argumentation of the previous sections, from which a number of implications are derived.