be a part-solution. The Mediterranean has a great story to
share with the rest of the world, a story that has placed the
Mediterranean region at the top of the preference list of
yesterday’s and, increasingly, today’s and tomorrow’s travellers. And tourism can unite not just for tourism purposes but it will also unite us culturally and economically.”
sis on experiencing countries in their rawness, in how
they really are, isn’t there a fear that tourism will change
the traditional and the real into a Disneyesque affair?”
To Agius Muscat the opposite is true—travellers go in
search of all that is genuine and not the touristic. This
search for all that is genuine will push for conservation
and the sustainability of tourism.
We now ask Agius Muscat what inspired the need for
the Foundation. He is convinced that promoting peace
through tourism is possible, is an ideal that is easily
reachable and all stakeholders should work at it. Tourism brings people together, and we—even from different countries, cultures and religions—aren’t all that different from each other.
The Mediterranean Tourism Foundation has great
foundations and all seems set for its very successful involvement in the way forward for tourism. The next big
step, according to Agius Muscat, is to hold a forum in
another country, to spread the wings of this fledgling
but lively baby away from the island that saw its birth.
Today travellers are in search of a truly experiential
event when they leave their country for their breaks.
“But,” I ask Agius Muscat, “with all the new empha-
The world will always have problems to face and to overcome but it definitely has talkers, movers and shakers
who can make the future a brighter one.
Tony Zahra (l) and Andrew Agius Muscat
INSIDER SPECIAL EDITION
2015
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