Chapter Title:

Overtourism in Valletta—Reality or Myth?

Book: Overtourism: Causes, Implications, Solutions.

By: Séraphin, H., Gladkikh, T.; Vo Thanh, T. (eds)

In the past two decades, significant public investments in cultural infrastructure and events encouraged the private sector to consider new investment opportunities in Valletta, particularly in short-term rental accommodation, catering establishments and boutique hotels. In recent years, there was a sharp increase in boutique hotels, tourism rentals and catering establishments. Increased tourism activity reduced liveability for Valletta residents. The research finds that there are the initial signs of overtourism and that this is a source of concern, mainly to Valletta residents and to persons with an interest in urban heritage. If no action is taken to mitigate, it is likely that some of the negative impacts will become severe and unacceptable.

Chapter Title:

Local life at an urban destination and its relevance to tourism

Book: Recent Advancements in Tourism Business, Technology and Social Sciences.
Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham

By: Katsoni, V. (eds)

Even if tourists visit the well-known landmarks, more and more visitors are eager to experience and explore the local life. They seek to discover authentic aspects of a destination particularly elements related to a community’s traditions and lifestyles. ‘Live like a local’ is a promotional approach that many city destinations are adopting. In their day-to-day life, city residents engage in a broad range of activities including shopping for daily needs, leisure activities, socialising, cultural activities and religious practices. These and other community activities provide tourists the opportunity to observe local life and sometimes actively participate in it. Moreover narrow winding roads, traditional facades and other urban features in historic areas give a local feel to a place and are perceived by tourists to be a reflection of local life. These different aspects and their relevance to tourism are considered in this paper and illustrated with examples. The paper is the outcome of the author’s own observations when visiting city destinations and his post-visit reflections, supported with relevant desk research.
The paper was presented at the 10th IACuDiT Conference on Recent Advancements in Tourism Business, Tech. and Social Sciences. The conference was held in Chania, Crete in August 2023

Chapter Title:

Conservation issues of two fortified historic towns and World Heritage Sites: Rhodes and Valletta.

Book: Conservation issues of two fortified historic towns and World Heritage Sites: Rhodes and Valletta.

By: Wasowska-Pawlik, A. & Purchla, J. (Eds.),

The paper compares two remarkable fortified historic towns namely Rhodes Town (Rhodes) and Valletta (Malta). In history the two cities were the seats of the Knights of St. John, a formidable military force in the Mediterranean (1306 to 1522 and 1530 to 1798, respectively). Both still possess a rich urban heritage including extensive fortifications. Both are listed as World Heritage Sites. Both are dynamic urban centres and important tourist destinations. The paper compares the similarities and differences on matters of planning and conservation. In particular it will consider to what extent conservation initiatives enable the two cities to cope with modern-day urban and tourism pressures.
The paper was presented at the 5th Heritage Forum of Central Europe. The conference was organised by the International Cultural Centre in Krakow, Poland in September 2019.

Conference Paper:

Developing project concepts for historic sites: Lessons learnt from Fort St. Elmo project.

Paper presented at an International Symposium organised by European Walled Towns in Hellevoestluis, Netherlands - September 2016

The site presented many challenges because of the extent of the area, the historic nature of buildings, structure and spaces and also because of the poor condition of most of the historic structures. The actual works on site began in early 2012 although the preparations began long before that. The preparatory process included the development of the project concept, the drafting of the application for European Regional Development Funds and the architectural design. Dr. John Ebejer was involved in the project as a consultant, from its inception up until the end of 2012, at a time where the works were near completion. In the paper Dr. Ebejer explains some of the lessons to be learnt about the project management of an urban conservation project.

Conference Paper:

Meaning of place and the tourist experience

Paper presented at an international conference in 2014

When visiting a place, people sometimes experience something which goes beyond physical or sensory properties. This is often referred to as ‘sense of place’ or ‘genius loci’. In urban design literature, sense of place is often attributed to three elements namely physical setting, activity and meaning. This presentation will consider one element, namely meaning, and examine the extent to which meaning of place impinges on the tourist experience.

Article Title:

A tunnel for Gozo: is it the best solution?

The article was featured in The Malta Independent on Sunday in May 2019.

In 2019, the government proposed the development of an underground tunnel to connect Malta to Gozo. The article questions whether this would be the best solution..

Article Title:

Pembroke Gardens: an urban space in the making.

The article was featured in The Malta Independent on Sunday in August 2012.

The author describes the implementation process for Pembroke Gardens, a project for which he was project coordinator on behalf of the Malta Tourism Authority. St. Georges is an area with a concentration of hotels. A major weakness of the area was the absence of a sizeable urban space which could be enjoyed by tourists residing in nearby hotels. The project makes use of a large area of abandoned land and converts it into a public space for Maltese and tourists to enjoy. The project was part-financed by European Regional Development Funds.