Malta’s Tourism Policy: Standing Still or Advancing towards Sustainability?

As with most warm water islands, Malta’s tourism has been historically focused on ‘sun, sea and sand’ package holidays. As a result, the ratio of visitors to locals has expanded very quickly and the strain on infrastructure from too many tourists is evident. As do other small islands, Malta also suffers from an absence of pluralism amongst the politicaleconomic elite and a familiarity between voters and politicians, thereby creating barriers to implementing successful policies. Through an examination of how successful tourism policy implementation has been to date, this paper examines Malta’s tourism development as it relates to sustainable tourism. The paper addresses the economic, social and political implications of tourism development as well as discusses barriers to implementing a tourism policy specifically geared to sustainability. The paper concludes by providing insights into sustainable tourism policy implementation issues for other island destinations.