Bhutan Limited Tourists To Preserve Its Culture And Quality Of Life. Should Malta Be Next?
Bhutan, a small country in Southeast Asia nudged between China and India, has been an unforeseen success story harbouring what many consider to be the happiest citizens in the world.
Unlike many of its neighbouring countries, Bhutan has preserved its environment and is the world’s first carbon-negative country.
Approximately 70% of all of Bhutan’s land must be forested by law, setting a great example to the rest of world.
A big reason for the preservation of Bhutan’s culture and environment is its tourist cap.
While tourist capping is not unique to Bhutan, the Asian country has managed to utilise this limitation of tourists to generate wealth and improve the quality of life for its citizens by preserving its environment.
Bhutan is almost the size of Switzerland and in 2018 the Government lifted the number of tourists allowed into the country to around 275,000 tourists a year.
Malta attracted 1,980,000 tourists in the same year and the number has been constantly rising prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tourist capping could seriously be considered in Malta, especially considering the rising number of tourists annually and the apparent lack of infrastructure around this growth.
And this is a problem.
Bhutan accredits its preservation of culture, environment and community to the fact that tourism is controlled. They do this by implementing a tourist tax which is used for infrastructure and environmental protection.
It comes as no surprise that areas like St Julians, Sliema and Buġibba are facing new challenges amid the tourist increases over the past decade; unfortunately their infrastructure has remained rather antiquated.
In the 2016 budget, an Eco Contribution tax was in fact whereby tourists would pay a contribution of 50c per person per night when staying at any form of accommodation in Malta. This is limited by a maximum of €5 per person per visit.
The idea for the contribution was to invest in key infrastructure in tourism areas but these areas remain for the most part very badly maintained.
An updated version of this initiative could go towards the maintenance of these busy areas, especially during the summer months when tourism is at its highest.
Tourism is Malta’s biggest export and is the backbone of our economy, but if we can learn anything from the Bhutan model is that citizens and residents must be prioritised and a balance must be struck between tourism and the well being of residents.
For example: if a simple tourist tax of €5 a day would be implemented on tourists, Malta would in 2019 would have generated €13.5 million Euros from the 2.7 million tourists, over and above their contribution to the economy.
These funds could be completely focused on wellbeing initiatives and maintenance of areas where tourism is centred but are often forgotten. Transparency when it comes to the distribution of these funds is the key to keeping these areas well maintained and respect the quality of life of residents of these areas.
Do you believe Malta should limit tourists or implement a new tourist tax?