Anyone intending to turn Valletta's controversial old Opera House site into an upmarket, heritage-style, boutique hotel can close the drawing board - the plans are complete, down to a T.
The same goes for a hotel based on an equestrian concept in Siġġiewi, targeting an innovative niche; as is dark tourism, for which a week-long tour, including cemeteries on the itinerary, has been designed for ghost hunters and the like.
Unfortunately, however, these innovative projects, despite their detail, are likely to remain on paper once an exhibition at the Institute of Tourism Studies is over. They are the efforts of its graduating management students.
"Valletta is in dire need of a high-class hotel, which would revive and promote the capital. Most foreigners have heard of Valletta and, yet, they barely find anywhere to stay in its heart," the four students who have designed the Royal Opera Hotel Relais & Chateaux said.
They spent over €2,000 (Lm858.60) on its presentation, which includes a model of one of the hotel's 20 luxury suites.
The average room rate would be €361 (Lm154.98) - a market the students said was growing.
Those visiting the exhibition can take an onscreen tour of the hotel, with its classical façade, discovering the indoor and outdoor pools and central garden.
The students have created menus and a wine list for its three food and beverage outlets, as well as a sampling of the linen in each suite, which is different from the next.
On the other hand, the Siġġiewi project is more of an agro-tourism concept, though equally high-end. Stemming from the agricultural land, San Niklaw farm, that is awaiting conversion into an equestrian village, the students have gone a step further, creating an exclusive hotel of just 30 suites.
It seems the environment-friendly attitude of the students has not yet been tarnished, with the low-lying hotel not exceeding two floors.
The students behind Le Cheval d'Or maintained that the project would hit every generation from children onwards. It is complete with a polo pitch and three different standards of stables, offering high-quality amenities that would absorb the Marsa facilities.
"North Africans, who love their horses more than their wives, would bring them over," the students believe, saying it was a popular sport worldwide, but was not being tapped.
Other equally-interesting ITS exhibits show Selmun Palace and Hotel are also in for rehabilitation with a health slant, the idea being to incorporate a clinic to attract health tourism. The abandoned Fort Bengħisa, next to the Freeport, is being converted into a sports tourism concept, with a focus on fishing and diving in the surrounding areas.
Henry Mifsud, ITS Management Department coordinator, said that, fortunately, the exhibition is always visited by VIPs, who express their "amazement" at the projects on display. "But it stops there," he quickly added.
Many projects were avant-garde, he said, recalling that three years ago a detailed plan to turn St Luke's Hospital into a village for the elderly had been undertaken.
Before the SmartCity deal was sealed, ITS students had already designed a SmartCity hotel; and an underwater hotel was created on paper - before one started being built in Dubai.