The Malta Tourism Authority has embarked on an EU project aimed at retaining and attracting people within tourism through diversity management.
The project’s objectives are to enhance the industry’s image and to ensure that the tourism sector and its supporting services boast the appropriate talent pool.
Tourism in Malta goes beyond hotels and restaurants and encompasses activities such as language schools, diving schools, travel agencies, tourist guides, destination management companies and transport operators. This key sector must be safeguarded, further developed and adapted to changing travel trends.
This latest MTA project relates to specific activities to raise awareness on diversity management among tourism students. A tracer study will be carried out among tourism graduates to determine their career paths.
A second study will analyse the best practices of diversity management specifically related to the tourism sector. This study will extend the period of time the students’ career paths are being recorded to eight years following their graduation, and will also be extended to other students who receive tourism-related education.
This information will give an insight into how much of the investment in education ultimately reaches the tourism industry. It will also help to determine if there is a high retention rate of tourism students from Institute for Tourism Studies and the University of Malta and to address the cause which may lead to the loss of valuable human capital from the tourism industry.
The second study will focus on diversity management practices applicable to the sector. It will include discussions with industry experts. The study will help MTA adapt measures to further encourage and facilitate work-life balance within the industry. The objectives are to develop a set of tools resulting from the research, focusing on the implementation of diversity management practices.
Training tools will be distributed within the industry and among members of the partner organisations to tackle diversity management issues and to facilitate the introduction of the concept of diversity management within the various structures of the industry.
Through this project, the MTA will be supporting the adaptability of enterprises through skills improvements and education of workers, increased training and awareness within the areas stipulated by the research, and work towards creating innovative activities within the sector to make tourism in Malta more sustainable and quality-oriented within the area of diversity management.