Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1354201
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 MARCH 2021 INTERVIEW An opportunity to 'reflect, redevelop and rethink' In a recent interview, you ar- gued that the COVID-19 pan- demic is "a great opportunity to talk about sustainability [in tourism], and get ready to start a new chapter and putting things right." Can you expand on that? What sort of reforms should, in your opinion, the tourism sector be talking about right now? First of all, I have to say that – after 40 years working in the industry, in both the private and the public sector – I am now entering the next phase of my career: which includes consulta- tion, lecturing and research. One of my most interesting projects, which has yet to start, is as an expert and facilitator in the UK's High Streets Task Force: where I am involved in the re-opening of the high streets after lockdown. Which ties in with your ques- tion, on why we need to reflect, redevelop and rethink our tour- ism strategy; and why it has to be begin from today. Because now we have a glar- ing opportunity to achieve, in practice, what we have only ever spoken about before. In a sense, we've had plenty of other opportunities, in the past. But we always used the excuse that: 'it's too busy; we cannot change things during the peak period; now is not the time, etc.' There were always a hundred and one reasons to postpone any change. Now, however, we don't have any more excuses. The whole world has stopped. This isn't just a 'slow-down'; this is a 'shut- down'; and has been for the last year. So we have this ideal opportunity to reflect, and ask ourselves: what have we done wrong in tourism? What can we do right? For let's face it: we did make mistakes, in the past. We had 'over-tourism', for instance. Not just here in Malta: there have recently been protests in Barce- lona, in Venice; and in practical- ly all places where tourism was impacting the social life of the locals. So the question becomes: do we want to go back to that? Do we want to make the same mis- takes again… or do we want to start a new chapter? How do you envisage this 'new chapter' to work in practice? What would you say most needs to change: whether because of COVID-19, or for any other rea- son? With regard to the demands of the current pandemic: to operate a successful tourism destination, first and foremost we need security, safety and re- sponsibility. Right now, howev- er, we seem to be focusing only on gearing up for summer 2021: taking our cue, it seems, from what countries like Cyprus, and other destinations, have done. But are we actually ready for that? Can we really claim, today, to be a 'secure, safe and respon- sible' destination? If you look at how the pandem- ic has been managed over the past year: out of 500,000 peo- ple living here, only around a quarter has been vaccinated so far. How, then, can we advertise ourselves as a safe destination…? Government's answer would be to point out that – while it is true that we are far away from herd immunity – our figures still place Malta as among the fastest vaccination roll-outs in the EU… Well… figures tend to be ma- nipulated in different ways. In fact, we see this all the time: statistics are interpreted differ- ently, by politicians, by business interests… by all sorts of people, really… depending on the result they want to get out of it. But if you look at the facts on the ground, a different picture emerges. For instance: the UK, since January, had had a vac- cine roll-out reaching 20 million people. If we had the same roll- out speed, the entire popula- tion could have been vaccinated within one or two months. These are the facts. So while we can always cheat ourselves into believing that 'we're the best country in the world'; or that 'we're getting there'… the reality is that: yes, we are 'getting COVID-19 has had a catastrophic effect on Malta's tourism sector: but for Dr JULIAN ZARB – industry consultant, and president of the Mala Tourism Society – it also represents a unique opportunity to transform the country's tourism product PHOTO: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTATODAY Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt