In the Back to the Future movies, 2015 was the year to which Michael J. Fox travelled forward in time. The movies predicted that we would be driving flying cars, have electronics in virtually everything and life would be lived at a quicker pace as evidenced by the speed that people walked down the street.
Thirty years later, a quick look around us reveals that the script wasn’t too far off-piste. The emergence of hyper-competitive smartphones, social media, e-commerce and artificial intelligence continue to push technological boundaries.
The moral of the story is that nothing is constant except change itself and most often it requires a think-outside-the-box-attitude to survive the future in highly dynamic economies and societies. I like to call this “discontinuous change”.
From a tourism perspective, a quick look at my rear-view mirror reveals that in the early part of the 20th century, international tourism was seen as the purview of a relatively limited set of affluent travellers. However, as economies grew stronger and closer, supported by new transport and communication means, millions of new travellers started looking to purchase exceptional tourism experiences.
Today, the UN World Tourism Organisation forecasts that the number of international tourist visits will increase from 880 million in 2009 to 1.8 billion by 2030.
Our own tourism sector reached an all-time record on all fronts in 2014. This has been an important achievement, critical for our economy to remain stable during times when neighbouring countries, including some of our key source markets, were experiencing serious economic turmoil.
Notwithstanding this success, the MHRA has consistently stated that not all has been a bed of roses in tourism: Malta requires a vision to survive the future. A true vision, however, cannot be achieved by looking back to the best of our achievements and changing as little as we can, but by looking ahead with clarity.
Indeed, circumstances – triggered by war, changes in technology, demography and values, fluctuations in international exchange rates and oil prices and the impact of the general election in Greece on the EU – all support our argument that Malta, as influenced by the tourism sector, requires a vision that challenges the status quo.
Notwithstanding the success, not all has been a bed of roses in tourism: Malta requires a vision to survive the future
Our call upon the stakeholders is that the guiding principle in this long voyage must be quality oriented. But here again some of us tend to get confused and mix up the concept of quality with luxury. What MHRA is saying is that we need to take our country to the next level by capitalising on our strengths. We recognise that to get to this level is no easy feat.
MHRA agrees with those who claim that Malta is a diamond in the Mediterranean region, but we also share the view that we are far from being a polished one. We have a poor infrastructure and an even poorer skyline. We still lack the appropriate networks for public transport, and the education system which supports our tourism sector has completely lost its bearings since its successful launch in the 1980s.
Time is against us and yet we are still arguing on how best we should address our energy policy and the restructuring of our national airline. Policies that are required to facilitate entrepreneurship still get lost for years in studies, contemplations and endless rhetoric.
The public sector remains burdened with unnecessary processes and a growing number of unproductive employees. Our national branding is blurred and we lack innovation, epitomised by the attitude of some of our politicians who resist constructive change solutions.
A look in the mirror reveals that our product needs to embrace the total quality principle. This is not only dependent on budgets but also on attitudes and approaches.
There are always reasons to justify the status quo but in the light of discontinuous changing circumstances, our challenge is to look back only to see where we started from and to remain focused on the future. We should not wait for events to overwhelm us but rather work to take advantage of the change, which will happen for sure.
Let us not be the frog which if put in cold water will not bestir itself when that water is heated up slowly and gradually and will be boiled alive, too comfortable with continuity to realise that continuous change at some point becomes discontinuous and demands a change in behaviour.
You may argue that we are not cold-blooded and that the brains of the frog are much smaller than ours. So let’s be smart and start thinking of our meeting rooms as the time machine we all dreamed of having after watching the Back to the Future movies.
Let’s prudently embark upon a new voyage that embraces real, discontinuous change, leading us safely to our next destination: year 2045!
Tony Zahra is acting president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association.