“A star on a red hill. Gharghur’s emblem fits perfectly for this old village which still retains many characteristics of a Maltese typical rahal with old buildings, niches, chapels and winding streets that lead to the village square...”

This is the introduction to a book launched by the Gharghur local council last week. The aim of the council and the author Julian Bezzina is for the publication to serve as a guide to four different charming walks in the locality of Gharghur. Gharghur, which is a quaint locality perched on a stretch of land flanked by valleys, has a lot to offer in terms of history, heritage, culture, scenery and rural environment.

Gharghur is not the only locality in Malta that enjoys such potential. For the past two years we have been harping on the fact that all our localities have a lot to offer. We have been reiterating that all towns and villages in Malta and Gozo can become tourist destinations catering for both external and internal tourism.

With this initiative the Gharghur local council has not just embarked on a marketing exercise of the locality, but also elected to direct its efforts at the particular niche market that is walking tourism and which is but one of many facets encompassed by what is defined as activity tourism.

The features that make up our islands and distinguish our localities are ideal for this type of tourism. Whereas in other countries one may have to make a choice between a walk in the countryside and a stroll among the historic buildings that adorn old town centres, in Malta one can easily do both.

The geography and size of our islands, more often than not, make it possible for one to start a walk in a town centre where our rich heritage can be admired, and end up enjoying the countryside which is never that far away from urban centres.

The weather also benefits walking tourism. Our mild winters and Mediterranean climate create the perfect balance between the conditions needed for the countryside to flourish with greenery and the ideal settings for outdoor activity to take place.

Walking holidays are on the up in various tourism markets around Europe.

These are mainly categorised under three groups namely walking holidays, wherein walking is the main purpose of the holiday; holiday walking, where walking is an important part of a holiday but not the main purpose and where good walking country is an important factor in holiday destination choice; and walking day visits which basically consist of day visits with walking as the main purpose.

We have the ingredients to satisfy these three demands. All we need to do is to look after them, nurture them and market them so that we can exploit them in a sustainable manner. This will subsequently increase income from internal and external tourism and help finance the improvement of the tourism product.

The Leader programme is one of the tools local councils are using to improve rural development in their territories. Three local action groups have been set up covering 40 rural localities and each one of them has been allocated e90,000 to develop a sustainable strategy for local development. The scope of the Leader programme is to obtain rural sustainable development by joining together the public, private, agricultural and tourism sectors together with NGO’s.

All groups have conducted or are conducting consultation processes with all stakeholders in their region. Following this consultation the groups will then work on establishing a strategy and proposing projects that should enhance the region in a holistic manner.

Walking tourism should be considered to form part of these strategies. This particular niche of the market, like other active tourism, is an important and growing concept in the tourism industry. Statistics in Europe show that the number of holidays which involve participation in an outdoor activity, and the amount of holidays of which participation in a specific activity is the main motivation for the trip, are growing.

We should not be left behind. The platform is there for activity tourism in Malta to grow. Gharghur and other localities before it have set an example and showed that one should not wait for government initiatives and national strategies to improve the local tourism product and to target particular niche markets. The spirit of the Leader programme is a bottom-up approach and this spirit should be transposed to other initiatives including those that enhance the tourism product.

Chris Said is Parliamentary Secretary in the Office

of the Prime Minister