Tourism in Malta and quality improvement : the importance of the sea water pollution problem and the Blue Flag Programme

Abstract

What is tourism?: Most definitions of tourism highlights the complex issues that such an activity entails. Mathieson and Wall have defined tourism as:- 'The temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal places of work and residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in these destinations and the facilities created to cater to their needs. The study of tourism is the study of people away from their usual habitat, and of the impacts that they have on economic, physical, and social well-being of their hosts. It involves the motivations and experiences of the tourists, the expectations of and the roles played by the numerous agencies and institutions which intercede between them'. Tourists want to enjoy other people's heritage but are not involved about pollution, environment, ecological, moral and cultural damages. Through the improvement of standard of living and the increase in leisure time, people started to look further to spend their free life. Tourism in small islands: The tourist industry has been described as the fastest growing industry in the world and some claim that, on a global scale, it has become the largest single industry. It has also been hailed as an economic saviour for some economies in the grip of recession and for communities which has relied on localized exhaustible natural resources. At the same time, tourism has been responsible for opening up previously remote and isolated communities to the fluctuations and demands of the global economy. Small islands are often a resource of poor environments, in terms of their very limited natural resources. Limited resources are very much a function of restricted area. A comparative advantage will exist for the development of certain resources often the natural environment, including climate. This primary resource base i.e. climate and coast (beaches etc.) is a sustainable resource, even though all aspects are not naturally renewable. Coastlines are dynamic, shaped by powerful natural forces, liable in places to flood hazard, erosion and land instability, as well as being fragile environments e.g. marine underwater shallows. This primary resource environment is the main feature of the small island tourism product, usually supporting a variant of the sun-sea-sand holiday but including, especially in the case of Mediterranean islands, a heritage environment. Activities undertaken by sun holiday makers may be particularly damaging to the environment e.g. water-skiing, off-road driving, golf; or be ones for which alternative production, consumption would be less environmentally damaging, e.g. parascending, scuba diving, use of swimming pools, cycling and sunbathing. Tourists increase the challenge of managing an island's resources sustainably. In large numbers tourists are a threat to the island's environment, as well as increasing the dependence of the island's economy upon tourism though further export concentration. Also, because island tourism is often more reliant on air travel its tourism industry is generally more structured and less diversified than that found in main destinations. For certain periods of year, tourists often double the island's population leading to :- i) Over crowding: increase pressure on primary resources including demands for service provision such as water; ii) Overdevelopment: of the built environment as the location and scale of secondary resource development normally favouring coastline sites, pressurize the small land area available; iii) Pollution: from sources within the island, i.e. degradation and overuse of primary resources. Eventually the quality of the tourist experience is reduced and the island's comparative advantage lost. Decreasing the environmental damage after it has arisen is extremely difficult, involves high costs and requires a long time. Recovery time exceeds impact time. As a prerequisite of sustainable tourism the island's tourism industry, comprising private forms and public sector organisations, must act in an environmentally responsible manner compatible with the character of the destination, at a scale, it and its culture can absorb and welcome.