Graduation Tales: Re-thinking the tourism industry in Malta

The International Convention Centre Wales in Newport will this week see thousands of our graduates from 2020 and 2021 finally cross the stage in their cap and gown. To mark the return of our graduation ceremonies, we are sharing the stories of some of our inspirational students.

Julian Zarb, an academic based in Malta, is graduating with a PhD by portfolio following a long and distinguished career in the Maltese tourism industry.

His research looks at developing an effective local tourism planning strategy and policy, using a community-based tourism model in Malta called Meet the Locals.

The community-based concept aims to create an alternative to mainstream tourism, focusing on people and intercultural experiences which range from sampling food specialities to learning about the traditions of the locality; providing opportunities to discover a lesser-known culture, which guidebooks don’t tell visitors about.

Julian, who completed his PhD in 2019 and is finally celebrating his graduation after the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, said: “The tourist can experience the peaceful and timeless atmosphere of village life in Mqabba, Kirkop, and Safi while walking along the narrow, winding streets and open piazzas.

"They can learn how the local specialities like ricotta, cheeselets and honey are made, and sample them during the visit while also discussing the gastronomic history of these specialities with the locals; visit the quarry, the catacombs, and learn about the important role of the local band club. It’s about creating a different type of tourism which isn’t all sun, sea and sand culture.”

Meet the Locals was launched in August 2019, and was featured in EasyJet’s in-flight magazine in early 2020 – just as the pandemic hit.

Despite all that has happened since his studies, Julian thoroughly enjoyed his time at USW and is looking forward to collaborating further with his tutors – Dr Simon Thomas, Senior Lecturer, and Prof Jonathan Deacon, Professor of Marketing, at South Wales Business School.

He added: “Simon and Jonathan were not only tutors to me, we have remained close friends, and I am so grateful for their support throughout the past few years.”

Julian has been a lecturer and researcher at the University of Malta for 12 years, and is President of the Malta Tourism Society. Previously he worked as a tourism journalist and produced radio programmes on tourism in the country.

He chose to study his PhD at USW as a way of combining several different research projects that he’d undertaken during his career, into a portfolio of work to use as a model for starting to make changes in managing tourism.

“Tourism is more than just an industry; it’s a socio-cultural interaction between the host and the visitor. It’s the bringing together of communities, businesses and local authorities to look at the whole planning process – not simply using a top-down process, but including the locals and asking what they really want.”

Julian is also working with the church in Malta to create faith-based experiences, as opposed to religious tourism, with the aim of bringing the church closer to the local community.

“It’s not about what you see, but rather who you meet and the stories you discover,” he said.

“My long-term plan would be to introduce similar community-based tourism models in other countries, such as the UK. We’ve recently set up a Mediterranean branch of the Institute of Hospitality, which includes Malta as well as Greece and Cyprus, with plans to extend to North Africa and Southern Europe.

“The idea is to bring the idea of professionalism in tourism together again; treating hospitality and service as an industry – not treating tourism just as a job, but treating it as a career.”