In my last article, I wrote of the need to work together through the course I will be coordinating and which concerns the Application of the Management of Tourism. We cannot carry on with our dependance on politicians and businesses to make tourism for us all; we have to take the animal by the horns and do our very relevant part. That is what this course is about – it is about teaching you all how to make tourism work as a sustainable, responsible, quality socio-cultural activity for all, instead of how to make it work for a few in terms of the economic and egocentric way.

This week I will write about taking the first step by understanding, once and for all, that hospitality is far from an industry (we refer to hotels as the hospitality industry – wrong!) but it is a quality we all need to have before we receive visitors to these islands (or any destination for that matter). Hospitality cannot be achieved by training alone but must be practised countless times until it becomes a habit – I can give several examples I have experienced myself about a lack of hospitality in people seen as frontliners to the service industry; the latest experience was this week when I walked into a well-known supermarket with a backpack (I had been walking at the time) and I was literally chased out of the shop by security guards (I use this word very loosely since I do believe that these persons were just undertaking that role as a job not as a committed career). They treated me like some criminal instead of as a client. There are so many instances when hospitality is never the focus of any service activity – the receptionist in a five-star hotel, who ignores the client in front of her, so that she can work on her PC or, worse, while she has a conversation with her boyfriend or friend on her mobile phone; the customer care staff at a bank call centre who ignore the calls from clients and reply to them after a half hour to an hour wait or even the delivery person who ignores the importance of delivering to a client on time and does not even apologise if he or she is late.

It is these examples of inhospitable situations and disservice that have turned these islands into third choice destinations instead of first choice paradises. Travel and tourism are suffering now because of the dangers they brought to the spread of Covid-19 through their very activity of movement between countries – the least we can do is acknowledge this situation instead of supporting governments and businesses who want to ignore the cautious and careful reopening of travel and tourism after ensuring the health and safety of the destination. Hospitality is a key component in rethinking, redeveloping and restoring quality tourism. Once again make sure that if you want this to happen you need to take the opportunity of joining us for this unique course to apply the theory of tourism and travel to the actual management of tourism.

Those of you who are interested in enrolling in this accredited course can write to me on: [email protected] – this can be the start of putting theory and words into practice – let us start rethinking tourism together now.

Recommendations and summary

·         Hospitality means that we need to treat each other and our visitors with respect, courtesy and care;

·         The old adage we used in the hotel sector: “Leave your problems at the door before you come in to work” still counts if we really want to promote a quality activity;

·         Service is the result of professional hospitality, it is not an industry or a product; and

·         Finally, only you can restore tourism today as a quality, responsible and sustainable activity.

Dr Julian Zarb is a researcher, local tourism planning consultant and an Academic 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