Imagine going to a restaurant in Malta. You will probably be eating some continental style of food and you are very likely to be serviced by some non-Maltese person, with a very broken English accent. This is the same sort of experience that a tourist would go through. The tourist is also very likely to be meeting a non-Maltese person either at the reception of the hotel or the housekeeping staff in the hotel. If you are a tourist in Italy, France, the UK, or a Spanish, Greek or Cypriot resort, you are more than likely to go through a similar experience.

The truth is that in our tourism sector, key staff that is expected to interface with the customer could well be non-Maltese. I would not like to make a value judgement on this issue and state whether this is appropriate or not. There could be very good reasons why this is happening, but there could also be very good reasons why this should not be happening. The economics of employing non-Maltese staff could be the key reason why employers in the tourism sector do not employ Maltese persons. Another reason could be the availability, in terms of both quantity and quality, of Maltese human resources.

We are fast approaching the peak summer season. The indications are that this year could be another positive year for the sector. One also hopes that we do not commit the same old sin of not giving good value for money when the going is good, in order to avoid another period of relative stagnant tourism arrivals. It has taken a great deal to get to where we are today and we cannot allow the stupid behaviour of some operators to undo the good work of so many.

This is why I am raising the issue of human resources in the tourism sector. I strongly believe that it is the human resources employed in this sector that create the success of this sector because it is generally recognised that tourism is a people activity. And because tourism is essentially a people activity, this takes us back to where we started from - several of the staff that interface with the customer in our tourism sector are non-Maltese. What is the issue here? It is a fairly straightforward one. The amenities of a hotel are the same whether one is visiting Malta or some other Mediterranean resort.

Food could be very similar if not identical. Historical sites may be different, but when it comes to heritage, Malta can boast of certain elements such as the prehistoric temples, while Cyprus can boast of archaeological remains from the times of ancient Greece and Spain has its own heritage to boast of. If we think of the sea, this is certainly not something unique to Malta. What makes Malta unique from a tourism perspective is us, its people. Yet the tourist is more likely to be served by a non-Maltese than by a Maltese, and hence that uniqueness is lost also on this point.

This may not bother operators in the tourism sector. However, is this something that should bother the Malta Tourism Authority? The MTA has already spent quite a bit of money to promote what it called Brand Malta, one component of which was hospitality. It supported and is still supporting that promotion campaign with extensive training in customer service across the whole of the tourism sector. There is a great deal of effort being spent by the Institute of Tourism Studies to encourage young people to select a career in the tourism sector and then to train them.

This proves that the public sector is acting correctly and is putting all the necessary resources to ensure that the tourist gets a real taste of Maltese hospitality. However, when it comes to what happens in the real world, one notes that the much renowned Maltese hospitality is being entrusted in the hands of non-Maltese. Is this a situation we are comfortable with? If not, can more be done to ensure that persons working in the tourism sector are valued more to retain them? Can we make sure that a career in the tourism sector becomes an important and viable option for our young people? Could it be that over the years we have not given enough attention to the human resources aspect in the tourism industry?