Overtourism, environmental degradation and governance in small islands with special reference to Malta

Abstract

This chapter briefly reviews the literature on tourism carrying capacity, sustainable tourism and overtourism, three concepts interlinked with each other, and are o􀅌en used to stress the costs of tourism development as well as the need for good environmental governance. review on themes associated with the title of the chapter and reports the results of a survey on attitudes towards tourism in Malta. In the literature, environmental degradation is viewed as one of the downsides of tourism. This in turn is associated with overtourism, leading to overcrowding, traffic congestion, excessive development and takeover of facilities by tourists. The survey examined whether overtourism exists in Malta and whether the Maltese people associate tourism with environmental degradaton, and with the need for good environmental governance. The results of the survey indicate that most respondents were of the view that overtourism exists in Malta leading to environmental degradation, and this in spite of the lip-service given to sustainable tourism in official government policy statements.