Training employees in Malta's tourism industry with reference to disability awareness training

Abstract

This research examines and reviews the concept of training employees in Malta's tourism industry with particular reference to disability awareness training. This was done by looking at the literature about training and education in the tourism industry as well as the literature regarding the concept of Accessible Tourism. It focused on three core areas which should be taken into consideration on a national, regional and business level, so as to sustainably incorporate accessible tourism in a destination. Particular focus was given to the third core area; training and education, as a means of increasing awareness and providing the necessary skills to employees within the industry to improve the service provided to people with disabilities. By using the concept of the training cycle a general training needs analysis was done as part of the literature review. So as to discover whether disability awareness training was done in Malta, and to assess its level of importance, a deductive, qualitative approach was used. The data collection phase incorporated a series of 8 interviews which were done with the MTA, KNPD, MHRA, FATTA, Heritage Malta and transport service providers. The analysis also included a disability awareness training document analysis and secondary data from the Calypso URTS project was used. The main conclusions drawn by the research are that in Malta the tourism service providers consider this training to be important to a certain extent due to challenges which are present such as training costs and lack of awareness. It was found that this form of training is included by some ii service providers as part of their customer care training program during induction but it is not done with the cooperation of KNPD. At the end of the study the Limitations of the research were outlined and further areas of study were proposed.