Analysing the future potential of luxury tourism in the Maltese islands

Abstract

The Maltese islands is an emerging destination, which attracts various niche markets. In 2017 Malta has welcomed around 2 million tourist which shows a major growth of 10.2 percent from the previous year. Due to this high amount, Malta faces mass tourism especially during the high peak season, which could cause certain issues due to a lot of people in such a small area. In addition to this, the new policies from 2016 -2020 focus on quality tourism and new ideas have been suggested to increase luxury tourism in the Maltese islands. This research focuses on altering mass tourism into quality tourism and analysing the potential of the Maltese islands developing into a luxury destination, to attract the luxury tourist. The luxury tourist would be able to contribute to the Maltese islands due to the extensive knowledge they possess and also be a benefit towards the economy of the islands. Nowadays luxury tourism is about offering a high-quality product or service which will display an authentic and exclusive experience for the luxury guest. This study was evaluated by the contribution of 18 interviewees which assisted in establishing if Malta could be an ideal destination to promote luxury tourism and to analyse the main facilities that Malta as a destination could offer. The interviewees were all organisations that work or are part of the tourism segment and which could give a clear overview of their experience on the luxury market. Although the growth of this niche market could be achieved by various improvements, research is required to make sure that the tourists are provided with an authentic, product or service which will deliver an experience to the guest. For this to be achieved consistency needs to be a major factor that the country needs to focus on while hosting a luxurious destination. The results analysed show that the Maltese islands do have tremendous potential into being developed into a luxury destination due to the unique and honest product that could be found around the islands. However, one will find significant challenges which need to be investigated such as large investments and improvements to create a better image and brand identity of the Maltese islands. If these improvements take place, Malta will portray an image of quality tourism and will benefit from a better economy and might also attract high-level investors who would like to implement new innovative ideas to the Maltese islands.