Insider Special Edition 2015 | Page 34

Insider Special Edition: You are president of MHRA, an association that represents hotels and restaurants in Malta, one of the smallest countries in the Mediterranean. How does it feel to see your Association and Malta play such a pivotal part in the Mediterranean? Tony Zahra: I am humbled. This has been a humbling time. I feel humbled and honoured. I feel supreme pride in what we’ve done. Obviously I and all of us at MHRA want to see more, and for Malta to be more of a leader in the Mediterranean. Just because we are small in size, we still want to be seen as leading in good practices, in the hospitality industry and in many other things. That is my aim and the feeling of seeing people coming to Malta in droves to discuss the industry is a fantastic feeling. I: In times of old Malta featured highly in many aspects connected to the Mediterranean. Can this be a move to see bigger things for Malta and the Med in general? TF: Certainly! What we are trying to do is achieve a situation where Malta will be the place to get the different stakeholders of the Mediterranean to come and discuss the hospitality industry and anything else that might be on the agenda at that particular moment in time. Dialogue starts the whole process but then we move on to actions planned out and devised. “Each country should focus on its specificities” TF: Sustainability in anything that you do has to be the way forward because unless you’re sustainable in what you’re doing then there simply is no way forward. ...numbers are not all the answers—we need good quality and preferably well I: Travellers in huge numbers have always flocked to the Med. But the push is now for more quality, more refinement, more sustainability. What is the way forward? 32 2015 spread over the whole year There is no doubt that there is a different mix of tourists visiting the Mediterranean. Visiting in summer when the sun and the sea are at their most enjoyable is extremely important – perhaps the priority for a region that attracts people who are all too often faced with cold, grey weather which usually keeps you inside. But besides the sun and sea attractions one has to also emphasise, and if possible make known, the other side of our region—the cultural part, the part that can be enjoyed all year round. One has to see the resources and correlate them with the qualitative requirements of the tourist in question. Although we talk of numbers and how important they are we also have to look at their sustainability. How many can a country, a region or a INSIDER SPECIAL EDITION