Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1354201
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 MARCH 2021 INTERVIEW there'… but very, very slowly. In some respects, however, not much is changing at all. There has been no lull in the construc- tion sector, for instance – I can attest to this myself, having works being done next door – and traffic remains just as bad as it ever was. Nobody seems to be taking any notice that there is, in fact, a pandemic going on; and that we need to keep distances, to be safe. We have, in a word, tried to carry on as if it were 'business as usual'. I would even insist on the fact that we didn't even consider another lockdown: had we con- sidered that option back in Jan- uary – when there were already signs that things were going to get worse – we could by now al- ready be starting to recover… And yet, much of the resistance to a second lockdown came, in fact, from the tourism sector it- self. Now, it is the same sector that is suffering the most due to the restrictions. Do you see this as ironic? It is ironic, yes; because a lot of the people involved in the tourism industry seem to have this misguided view, that it is possible to simply re-open, and go right back to how we were in March 2020… or in any year be- fore that. There's this perception that, by re-opening for business as usual, we will all just waltz down the Yellow Brick Road: back to the 'miracle' of having 3, 4 million tourists a year. But that's not going to happen. Or at least, not straight away. It will take time… You also seem to be argu- ing, however, that… maybe it shouldn't happen. Maybe we shouldn't be looking at a return to '3, 4 million tourists a year'. Are you suggesting, then, that we should be changing our tourism model instead? And if so: how? Obviously, this is something that would need to be imple- mented gradually. But what tourism needs to be doing – and I'm not just talking about Malta here; this is happening interna- tionally, everywhere – is to get ready for the changes that are about to take place. Because tomorrow's tourism is going to be very different from that of yesterday or today. Very slowly, it will develop from an interna- tional tourism based on simple growth, and short-term eco- nomic gain… to a more mod- erated growth model, which is more sustainable. People are also going to be more aware when choosing their destination. They will prioritise other aspects: culture, history, a genuine experience of the local product. It is no longer a case of 'price and availability' being the foremost consideration. Yet that is what we have always relied on, in the past. I've had ex- periences of this myself, over my years of dealing with tourists in Malta. When you ask them, 'why did you come here'… as a rule, they wouldn't say 'because of the culture, history or the inter- esting experience'. Most would simply say: 'because the price was right, and there was availa- bility'. Is this the sort of tourism we really want to go back to? Is it just numbers? Personally, I think that we would need to move away from the purely 'quantita- tive' aspect… But Malta's tourism infrastruc- ture – with its emphasis on large hotels, mass-excursions, highly- concentrated enter- tainment hotspots, etc. – is now geared up precisely for the 'miraculous' figures you mentioned earlier. So wouldn't a reform of that model also ne- cessitate a radical restructuring of the industry itself? Yes, it would. This is why it will have to be a slow process. And again, it's not just Malta. If you look at Spain, Italy, Tu- nisia, Greece… a lot of their in- frastructure is likewise geared up for the masses; for 'quantity' over 'quality'. But this is also why I argue that we should take the pandemic itself as an opportuni- ty to at least begin the process. Everyone in the industry knows, ultimately, that these are changes that we were sooner or later going to have to make an- yway. Yet, as I said before, we always found a hundred and one excuses to postpone the inevita- ble. And to be fair: it is also dif- ficult to change things, at a time when businesses are doing well. Now, however, none of that ap- plies. These are not 'busy times': now, all our hotels are empty. And it gives me heart-burn to say that, by the way. I've worked in and around hotels, in Mal- ta and the UK, for the past 40 years…. and when I walk into one (very cautiously) today, and see it empty – with, at most, a sole receptionist, looking bored out of his mind - it breaks my heart, to be honest. Hotels are all about welcom- ing people; about making people comfortable; about being busy around the needs of clients and guests. That is what the entire hospitality and service industry is ultimately based on. And it is precisely where we should be trying to get back to, right now. This raises the rather inevitable question: how do we get back there, exactly? Today, we have the perfect opportunity to start serious- ly discussing answers. Yes, we might need to overhaul our infrastructure; and yes, we might even need to change some of our training needs. I'm convinced that, in a post-COV- ID world, tomorrow's tourism is going to reconsider various aspects of skills, qualifications and jobs. This is also true of other in- dustries beyond tourism. Right now, I'm reading Yuvel Harari's book, 'Homo Deus'; and while there are some objective points I might disagree with… the au- thor convincingly predicts that, from 2030 to 2050, many indus- tries are going to become fully automated: and hospitality is among them. This is another reason we should be planning ahead. I my- self wouldn't like to see the tour- ism sector become completely automated – it is, at the end of the day, a 'people-to-people' industry. So we need to invent new ways of ensuring that the 'people-to-people' approach continues working in future. Why should people book their hotel… check out of their ho- tel… and organize all aspects of their holiday, only by using their smart-phones? Where is the personal contact in any of that? That, too, is part of the tour- ism experience. It's also about having a rapport with people in the host country. Automation cannot provide that; only peo- ple-to-people contact can. At the same time, however, the 'people-to-people' approach is also the one thing that has been completely wiped out by COV- ID-19. So isn't it also a case of 'force-majeur'? I wouldn't say exactly 'force-majeur', myself; because the need for a change was felt even before March 2020. I don't know if you've ever heard of the 'Calvia project': but there is a little town called Cal- via in Majorca, which used to re- ceive around 1.6 million tourists a year. In 1995, however, the lo- cal community, business sector and administration decided that they'd had enough. They want- ed something different; and they got together, and transformed their tourism product. Calvia, too, had its infrastruc- ture geared towards mass-tour- ism, at the time; but it didn't stop them from changing their model… If I'm understanding correctly, the same consideration did, in fact, stop us from making simi- lar changes here. And let's face it: people have invested rather heavily in those mass-tourism projects; they are unlikely to support calls for a reform. Are there any discussions going on, within Malta's tourism industry itself, about what you are pro- posing? Well, the Malta Tourism So- ciety, and various stakeholders and academics, are discussing this, yes; and have been for quite some time. I also know that, within the Malta Tourism Au- thority, there is a sudden rethink going on: they are now focus- ing more on sustainability and quality, rather than growth and numbers. But at the moment, it is still all just talk. And we've been talking about sustainability, in tourism, for more than 50 years. What has been achieved, in practice, in all this time? Very little, in terms of sustainability. So sooner or later, we are going to have to start walking the talk, rather than just talking. And there is no better opportunity to start doing that, than right now.