But we live here : perspectives on cultural tourism in Malta

Abstract

There is a world-wide trend towards a different type of tourism. Though sun, sand and sea remain attractive, tourists are increasingly looking for cultural experiences during more frequent but shorter holidays. They are leaving seaside establishments and heading inland to seek authentic local culture. How does this growing interest in cultural- as opposed to seaside - tourism affect the host populations?l Is this developing trend sustainable? The following discussion explores these questions by looking at recent developments in Malta, and in the ancient walled town of Mdina in particular. While the impact of mass tourism on Malta's coastal ecology and built-up environment has been devastating, its social and cultural effects appeared to relatively benign. In general, research in Malta has not supported those who have argued, as did Turner and Ash (1975: IS), that international tourism is a device for the 'systematic destruction of everything that is beautiful in the world'. Or that the commoditization of culture engendered by tourism 'robs people of the very meanings by which they organize their lives' (Greenwood, 1989: 179). Or that 'international tourism is undermining the most firmly established systems of reference' (URESTI, 1986). In Malta, tourism appeared to have stimulated dying indigenous arts and crafts, such as lace-making and filigree (Boissevain, 1977; Boissevain and Serracino Inglott, 1979). Tourist interest in local culture and history helped to build a sense of national identity in a country that had been independent only since 1964, after more than four centuries of foreign domination (Boissevain, 1984). Tourism also redefined parish religious pageantry and firework rivalry, folk events which had been dismissed by the elite, as important national cultural resources (Boissevain, 1984 and 1991). There was little tension between hosts and guests, as the holiday mood of tourists, who arrived mostly in the summer, reinforced the festive mood that the Maltese themselves have in the same period. Moreover, tourism seemed to have little effect on those religious and family values that are fundamental to Maltese society (Boissevain, 1989). To sum up then, through most of the 1980s tourism in Malta appeared - at least from the social and cultural point of view - sustainable at a commonsense level. It brought with it substantial economic benefits and employment; the infrastructure was able to cope with its continuous expansion; it was not detrimental to fundamental values; it contributed to a sense of national identity, pride and self-confidence; and it continued to be welcomed by the inhabitants. Thus it seemed on all counts to conform to the concept of sustainable development set out in the Brundtland Report: 'development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Since then the notion of sustainable tourism has been elaborated, among others by Eber (1992), and subjected to critical scrutiny by Harrison (forthcoming). So convincing were the comments of the latter that the common-sense notion of sustainable tourism noted above - substantial economic benefits, the ability of the infrastructure to cope, not detrimental to fundamental values and welcomed by the inhabitants - seems quite useful. However, as a result of research carried out in Mdina in 1993 and 1994, the author is no longer optimistic about the social and cultural sustainability of tourism in Malta. The research, and the reasons for the increased pessimism, are described below.