Let’s measure tourism success in real value
In 2024, Malta welcomed over 3.5 million tourists, with projections suggesting over four million in 2025. While these milestones are often celebrated, locals and industry operators increasingly view them as excessive. Are we measuring the right kind of success?
Tourism performance has long been measured by volume: arrivals, overnight stays and occupancy rates. However, the key question is not the quantity of visitors but the real, lasting and inflation-adjusted value each visitor brings to our economy and community.
Counting arrivals reveals little about Malta’s tourism effectiveness. Even expenditure per night, preferred by hoteliers, isn’t fully informative. This metric encourages short stays, causing frequent arrivals that strain infrastructure. Short-stay visitors crowd popular spots like Valletta and Mdina while longer stays distribute tourism more evenly.
Additionally, expenditure per night ignores inflation, which can mislead progress. Rising costs may inflate nightly spend without boosting actual value or longer stays.
A smarter KPI
A better way to measure performance is through real expenditure per tourist, adjusted for inflation. This metric focuses on value rather than volume.
It reflects the type of tourism we should aim for. Longer stays benefit more stakeholders: transport operators, destination management companies, experience providers, restaurants, cultural sites, guides, local businesses and residents. These tourists often explore beyond hotspots and engage in richer experiences.
If shorter stays persist, policymakers and the industry should attract high-spending niches seeking bespoke or thematic experiences. Though they stay fewer nights, their contributions are significant, supporting a resilient and equitable tourism model aligned with Malta’s long-term goals.
Real spend per tourist honestly reflects performance and aligns with Malta’s quality-focused tourism aspirations.
Vision 2050 contradictions
Malta’s Vision 2050 sets specific goals. It aims to attract 4.4 to 4.5 million tourists by 2035 and achieve total tourism expenditure of €6.8 to €7.2 billion without adjusting for inflation. Additionally, it introduces a benchmark of €220 to €230 in real spend per night, adjusted for inflation.
Currently, the real spend per night is about halfway to this benchmark. Doubling it within a decade is highly challenging. The metric of per-night spend suggests that increasing turnover while shortening stays might help reach these targets. However, this approach may put additional pressure on infrastructure and result in a transactional form of tourism with fewer long-term benefits for residents, operators and Malta’s brand.
It is futile for one arm of government to champion a value-driven strategy while another enables volume-oriented supply
– Alan Arrigo
While Vision 2050 emphasises quality and value, land use and planning policies continue to allow an increase in accommodation supply, which could reduce prices and spending per tourist. Setting ambitious targets may be ineffective if the policy environment promotes different outcomes.
Furthermore, the most recent report by the World Travel and Tourism Council forecasts significantly lower tourist spending compared to the projections made by government planners. This highlights the disparity between aspirations and what is realistically achievable under current conditions.
Value over volume
Achieving the goals of Vision 2050 will require more than statements of intent. It calls for a coordinated strategy that ensures our tourism, economic and spatial planning policies are speaking the same language.
This means rethinking how we manage capacity, ensuring that supply does not outpace the quality of demand we are aiming for.
The Malta Tourism Authority is already promoting experiences that go beyond the sun-and-sea formula, focusing on culture, heritage and niche interests.
However, it is futile for one arm of government to champion a value-driven strategy while another enables volume-oriented supply through planning policies that favour more accommodation stock.
This internal contradiction undermines the very goals Vision 2050 aspires to achieve.
We also need to encourage longer stays through better product development, seasonal balancing and tailored experiences. And, critically, we must equip both the public and private sectors with performance indicators that reward value creation rather than volume generation.
The real challenge is not setting a vision, it’s aligning execution with that vision and resisting the constant pull toward measuring progress through numbers alone.
This is a call for smarter tourism management, rewarding experiences over occupancy. Align policies with strategy and measure meaningful outcomes. Vision 2050 sets the right goals; now let’s prioritise value over volume.
The article was written by Alan Arrigo, a board member of the Malta Chamber and originally appeared in the Times of Malta.