Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo has said that collapsed buildings could attract more tourists to Malta.
The minister was speaking in the aftermath of the collapse of a building facade and scaffolding on a construction site in Gzira on Tuesday. No one was injured in the collapse, although neighbouring buildings were damaged.
“Hear me out. I believe there’s a small but lucrative niche of thrill-seeking tourists who want to visit war zones but aren’t willing to risk their lives. So what if they could visit a country that looked like it was being subjected to airstrikes but was actually completely safe?” Bartolo said.
“It’s the best of both worlds. You can look at some rubble, possibly with rescuers trying to dig people out from under it, but all the restaurants are open as normal,” he continued, adding that developers could be incentivised to make buildings as structurally unsound as possible.
The minister clarified that the potential tourists did not even have to be adrenaline junkies.
“They could just be normal people from normal, developed countries where this kind of thing practically never happens.”
Bartolo suggested contractors could also encourage construction workers to engage in unsafe practices.
“I’m talking about workers dangling precariously from 20-storey buildings with just a rope, or walking from one balcony to another on a plank of wood that’s 30 centimetres wide. I bet we could charge tourists to watch that.”
The Malta Developers Association said it agreed with Bartolo’s suggestions. MDA President Michael Stivala, who has several properties in Gzira, said:
“To be honest I already do everything the minister mentioned.”
