Fourteen tourism front-liners working in various hotels, tourism information centres and visitor attractions were recently sent to France on a two-week intercultural training programme promoted by the Malta Tourism Authority and funded by the Leonardo da Vinci programme. The participants were divided in two groups, one of which returned this week, whilst the others travelled last October.

The scope behind the visits was to enhance the knowledge of the French language of the front-office people through an intercultural programme. Participants benefitted from intensive language training on ‘French for Tourism and Hospitality Industry’ which was delivered by professional tutors at Centre de Linguistique Appliquée in Besançon. Florence Saint-Ygnan, a lecturer at the University praised the Maltese group for their dedication and commitment to improve their level of French.

The participants had the opportunity to interact with tourism staff in Besançon during their work placements. Visits to the UNESCO site La Citadelle and salt-works at Salins were also part of the itinerary.

The participants also met with Claude Zammit Trevisan MTA’s Marketing Manager in Paris who explained the MTA’s marketing efforts to attract more French tourists to Malta.