I have to include this article this week, because it seems there is a wide gap opening up between the strategy for tourism (2021-2030) and what in fact is happening in tourism planning and the management of tourism. This time last year I sent out a few warnings about the dangers of opening too early, after our one and only lockdown, when we managed to contain the disaster somewhat. I remember how, a week after these warnings in the press and social media, I received a one liner response from a senior official within the tourism authority just telling me: “The rest of the world thinks differently.”

Well now perhaps it is time to revisit that brief pearl of wisdom again and see just what is happening in the world; we are not over Covid, we may have found the vaccines but we have not won the war on C19 at all.  We are winning battles here and there, but then another variant comes along, mainly due to our incessant quest to be irresponsible, to take risks and to act like spoilt brats (this includes our politicians as well as our businesspersons by the way)! We are talking of opening summer 2021 to tourism, increasing our flights from and to the islands, organising events like the dreaded “Lost and Found” (which, by the way is not a tourism event but just an opportunity for hooligans to come and cause mayhem here instead of in Berlin or Bristol)! So when I gave my warnings for caution and to practice the three R’s – rethink, redevelop and restore tourism sustainably last year, some person from the tourism authority thought it appropriate to copy the rest of the world and follow others over the cliff into the dark abyss of this pandemic. Look at us now, we have not learned our lesson, we have not even learnt how to manage tourism professionally. Oh, yes, we have printed a booklet entitled, Strategy for Tourism 2021-2030 but I wager come 2022 and 2023 we would have forgotten all the well-intentioned ideas that this strategy contains; we will be “back to normal” .

But what is this “back to normal”? It means we will ignore common sense, we will ignore sustainability and responsibility and we will urge every mass tourist to visit these islands not as travellers but simply as a number to add to our statistics. Travel and tourism is not (I repeat this ad nauseam, I know!) about numbers but about attracting the visitor who wants to be at the destination. Perhaps what we really need are professionals who care about these principles, who are committed to develop quality tourism sustainably and who are not just “copycats” who claim that because the “rest of the world thinks so” then it is right.

Let us start a new page in tourism, a new chapter even, working on professional management of tourism through the integrated approach instead of depending on temporary decision makers like the politician and the businessperson. Tourism is a people activity that enhances the socio-cultural activity and the host-visitor interaction; we have a responsibility and a right to ensure this happens.

Next week I am back to my analysis of the strategy but I urge all readers to find time to comment and propose how they would manage tourism sustainably and responsibly.

 

Dr Julian Zarb is a researcher, local tourism planning consultant and a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Malta. He has also been appointed as an expert for the High Streets Task Force in the UK. His main area of research is community-based tourism and local tourism planning using the integrated approach.