VALLETTA (MALTA) (ITALPRESS/MNA) – Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has cautioned that Malta may be approaching a saturation point in tourism, urging a shift toward attracting higher-spending visitors rather than ever-increasing numbers.
Following the presentation of Budget 2026, Caruana said both government and industry must accept that there are natural limits to how many tourists the island can sustainably host.
“The sector itself will also have limitations to growth. If this country ends up attracting four million tourists, will it really afford to bring in more people?” he asked. “If the numbers continue to rise, the quality of a holiday in Malta will surely deteriorate.”
He noted that overcrowding is already evident. “In summer, you go to a beach and can hardly find a place to lay down your towel. This is why certain measures were already taken in Comino,” he said, referring to the visitor cap introduced to protect the Natura 2000 site.
Caruana argued that Malta should prioritise visitors with “deeper pockets,” warning that “it makes no sense to keep chasing quantity tourism from Europe.”
Malta welcomed a record 3.56 million tourists in 2024, up from 2.75 million in 2019. Between January and August 2025 alone, 2.68 million arrivals were registered, suggesting another record year ahead.
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(ITALPRESS).
