The report investigates the cultural aspects of Valetta in Malta as the European Capital of Culture 2018. This report is written as a part of the role of the as a ‘Graduate’ Travel Consultant for a leading U.K. Tour Operator, as a part of training. The report aims to examine different cultural tourist types and link them to their markets in Valletta. The report explains the importance of the cultural diagram. The paper analyses the social, economic and environment impact of hosting European Capital of Culture in 2018 and the benefits in terms of cultural tourism policy development.
1. According to Vong (2016) the consideration of typologies is necessitated by motivation. Typologies assist in understanding the behaviour exhibited by different cultural tourists. This section deals with the types of cultural tourists in Valetta and the evaluation of the McKercher and Du Cros’s typology of the cultural tourist.
In Valetta, main tourists are from UK and Ireland i.e approximately 41% and 30% of the tourist belong to the Germany, France and Italy. The tourists visiting Valetta in majority of the cases are found to be independent. Around 3.2% of the visitors are the cruise passengers and 17% of them visit via organised excursion (Borg 2017). Majority of the tourists in Valetta are those who do not have deep experiences but visit to spend with family and kids. They mainly visit for recreation and leisure and the main market for this type of visitors are Lunchtime concerts, carnival celebrations that are commonly held at the Oratory of St Francis Church, St James Cavalier and the Tal-Pilar Church. In addition, this category of the visitors is highly attracted to the appealing ambience at evening, gardens and the open spaces. The main market for pleasure in Valetta is waterfront, upper and lower Barrakka Gardens. There are very less visitors who travel Valetta for deep experiences and cultural reasons. For these visitors, the top attractions are St John’s Co-Cathedral and Museum, and Saluting Battery. Followed this main market are the National Museum of Archaeology, Palace Armoury and the Palace State Rooms. For those who are partly motivated for culture the main market are cultural festivals and theatres. In Valetta, 80% of the visitors with or without culture as key reason. Among these visitors, the most highly rated and positive aspects of Valetta are the capital viewpoints and the vistas, architecture and stress scapes include facades, alleys, old buildings and streets. The historical attraction mainly drives these visitors here. The visitors aiming for deep experiences and cultural as key reason are overwhelmed with the wide variety of cultural and historical attractions, its presentations and valorisation (Ebejer 2015).
McKercher and Du Cros explained the typology of the cultural tourist. This typology explains the importance of the cultural tourism in the decision to visit a destination. According to the cultural tourism market diagram by McKercher and Du Cros there are five different types of cultural tourists. Each of the type of tourist has different motivation and type of experience. It is important for the travel guide or the destination mangers to understand the travel motivation of the tourists. McKercher and Du Cros had well explained the five categories of cultural tourist for market segmentation purposes (Ferri 2017.). Each of them is described as follow-
Firstly, the purposeful cultural tourists are those who have strong cultural reasons, which motivate them to have deep experiences from a particular destination. The desire for deep experiences is the primary motivation of these tourists. Secondly, the sightseeing cultural tourists are those who visit a particular destination with cultural tourism as a key reason but their experiences are not deep. Thirdly, the serendipitous cultural tourists are those who do not travel for particular cultural reason. However, these tourists ultimately have deep experiences of cultural tourism. Fourthly, casual cultural tourists are those for whom culture plays no role in their decision to travel a particular destination. They ultimately have a shallow cultural tourism experience. Fifthly, incidental cultural tourists are the ones who do participate in minimal cultural activities. They do not visit a destination for cultural reason. They ultimately have a shallow cultural tourism experience. Recreation and pleasure could be the main motivation for their travel (Jovicic 2016).
This complex typology is effective because the segmentation of the tourists not only emphasise on the importance of the culture but also the depth of their experience, which influences the travelling decisions. For instance, based on this segmentation the destination mangers can direct the ones seeking deep experiences to the religious festivals, classical folk dances, art sculpture and crafts and for tours of language and literature study. The destination mangers can direct the recreational tourists to theme parks and other ongoing events in the destination that will give them pleasure (Vong 2016). However, this model does not explain the level of motivation among the one seeking deep experiences. The model also does not explain the type of attractions or activities that drive motivation among tourists seeking pleasure and recreation. The model does not explain the difference between culturally interested, culturally motivated and culturally inspired tourists (Liu 2014). The travel destination managers must put more effort to understand the serendipitous and the purposeful cultural tourists to understand their perception of deep experiences. This group of tourists comprise very less portion of the total tourist population. In each of the five segments, the meaning of the high (monuments and museums) and the low popular culture (sports museums) may be different, which. is also not explained by the model (Jovicic 2016).
2. This section deals with the analysis and the evaluation of the social, economic and the environmental impact that the country could face when hosting the European Capital of Culture in 2018. Further, the section presents the evaluation of the Butler Life Cycle (1980) of Malta in terms of destination development.
The social impact that the country could face is the positive change of the local perception and a sense of pride may be fostered among the people. It partly relates to the image impact, which means the popularity in terms of tourism destination. It may increase the cultural participation by the tourists. The sense of pride in people may be influenced d by the media attitude (local and national). Among the locals of Valetta, the perceptions of the city may improve and enhance. It could happen that 60-80% of the local population feel proud that the country has hosted the European Capital of Culture and spread a word of mouth that it is the better place. Other possible impact could be an increase and wilder diversity in the participating members of the country. The cultural audiences may increase in diversity during the year 2018. Almost half of the people in the country may engage in hosting including locals from Gozo and Comino. It may be as diverse as Helsinki 2000, LiverPool 2008, Luxembourg GR 2007, and Maribor 2012. Further, active community engagement may be promoted due to volunteering and training opportunities (Markwick 2017).
The economic impact that the country could face when it will host the European Capital of Culture in 2018 is the job creation at some extent but not robust level as seen in case of other countries which previously hosted the European capital of culture. It is quite evident from the previous countries and the literature available in this regard that the hosting on Malta will lead to considerable impact on the “immediate to medium-term tourism trends”. It will significantly affect the economy of the country. Moreover, the tourism visits and the investment can be sustained for many years as destinations such as Valetta are highly developed. Further repositioning or renovations for hosting the European culture will be sustained and it is the long-term positive effect. Like Liverpool 2008, there may be the unprecedented growth in the year 2018 and later there may be a steady growth in the country. Further, there is the possibility that hosting European capital of culture may add value to the existing regeneration programmes (Borg 2017).
The environmental impact could be improvement in the parking facilities, road signage, traffic management, greater public conveniences and better infrastructure for pedestrians. There may be an improvement in the city’s vantage points. The improvement in the panoramic views may be highly appreciated by the visitors. This may create positive tourist experience. It will create greater recognition both nationally and internationally for the role of the culture and arts to make the country a better place to live and work. The immediate impact would be high level of satisfaction among the people living in it (Ashworth and Tunbridge 2017).
The Butler’s life cycle diagram is an effective method of analysing tourism development. It explains how tourist attraction is supported over time and aid in development of destination. The model involves six stages (Lee and Weaver 2014).
The first stage refers to exploration stage where a small proportion of visitors is attracted and interested in the natural and culture condition of Malta. The tourists are attracted by the purity, authenticity and lack of institutionalization of the facilities for tourists. This phase does not disturb the natural rhythm of the place or bring any social or physical change and economic benefits for local residents according to Butler. The second stage is known as the involvement stage where more number of local residents participates in tourism. It consequently gives rise to secondary tourism facilities such as guesthouses and transportation system. It leads to increase in number of tourists over time as well lead to increase in regularity. With exploration of Malta, people became aware of the strategic position of the island between North Africa and Europe. Both the locals and the tourists became aware of foreign rue in this place and historic links with Britain. This stage marks the development of the tourism season (Petrevska and Collins-Kreiner 2016).
The third stage refers to the development stage, which is marked by an increase in number of tourists and in peak period they may be more in number than the local residents in the destination. This stage involves development of the tourist market by advertisement of natural and cultural attractions (Petrevska and Collins-Kreiner 2016). There is a greater involvement by the external organisation in providing secondary tourism facilities. In Malta, the ministry of tourism and foreign and affairs were responsible for tourism development. This stage lead to physical changes in the destination. Malta’s development was mainly because of the larger harbor in Valetta that operates as port. The ships are protected in the harbour and are the main source of transportation. The city is protected from invaders by the fortresses built in Valetta. The main reason for development of the city is the number of attractive elements and aquatic activity. During 1970s the Maltese tourism grew significantly (Dominguez et al. 2017).
The fourth stage is the consolidation stage. At this stage an areas’ economy is dependent on tourism where marketing will be wide-reaching. At this stage, the destination will represent major tourism chians and well defined recreational business district in the resort areas. There may be a rise of discontentment among local people and detachment between the locals and the tourists. Malta was experiencing wide number of vitirs from UK, Germany, France, Russian, etc. The total number of visitors in 2016 was 1965928 (Ashworth and Tunbridge 2017). The fifth stage refers to the stagnation stage where social, economical and environmental impacts of tourism are encountered and the destination may not be any more fashionable.
The final stage of the destination’s life cycle includes recession of industry. According to Butler, the six alternatives at this phase are renewed growth due to successful redevelopment, modest tourism growth due to minor modification, cutting capacity level may stabilise the tourism, or there may be decline due to exhaustion of resources and drop in market, and the sixth possibility is the complete collapse of tourism due to natural calamity. In case of Malta, between the period 2008-2009 the tourist’s visits considerably declined due to European Union regulations on visa, small size of nation, which lead to increase in tourist’s number more than the local population (Zammit 2015). Due to visa restrictions, there was decline in non-European visitors. The small size of area and quick exhaustion of the resources was the further cause of decline in the visitors. Poor infrastructure (in terms of waste management, roads, beaches) and failure to pursue the mass tourism marketing measure by the operators (Ashworth and Tunbridge 2017). Increase in investment, infrastructure and policy changes has rejuvenated tourism in Malta and it was mainly due to European capital of culture (Jones and Navarro 2014).
3. The United Nations has declared the last decade of twentieth century as the decade of cultural tourism in the world. In the present tourism trend, an integral part of the modern tourist offer is the cultural offer. Therefore, the global tourism market has important segment, which is recognised as cultural tourism (Borowiecki and Castiglione 2014). According to Du Cros and McKercher (2014) culture has a great share in expanding demand of tourists. It is a great share in the tourists offering and their profiling. Consequently, it is leading to different forms of tourism. It is also evident from the increasing attention paid to the cultural landscapes, industrial heritage and cultural routes in different parts of the world. The theorists of tourism according to Liu (2014) are facing new types of tourist movements that is resulting in new forms of culture tourism. These new forms were not seen in last century and is the outcome of tourist demands that creates new habits and demands which can be fulfilled only by special form of tourism.
The special form of cultural tourism is represented in recognising it as an important part of the tourism market. It is demonstrated in the shift of focus from monitoring monuments to integration of recreational needs of tourist with the growth in market of cultural tourism. It is also demonstrated by creation of new market niches such as creative, educational, language travelling, in Europe and beyond. Borowiecki and Castiglione (2014) highlighted that there is a high demand for traditional culture from Eastern Europe and Asia in case of newly opened market. Cultural tourism has become important market segment because of various opportunities it provides such as learning high and pop couture and growth of traditional culture. Thus, it gives opportunity for active visits to museum, monuments, festivals, entertainment through classical music and education for deep learners. The same is demonstrated by the UNESCO’s list of 2014 for cultural tourists that comprise of 981 monuments from 16 countries. It helped in development of cultural policy and pan-European tourism (Liu 2014). In various areas of Europe, it has prevented the decline of industrial cities in Spain and England. Cultural tourism has become an important part of the tourism market because in monocultural tourist destinations, it is a solution to seasonality, overcrowding and reducing number of tourists by longer stay. More profit was generated by the North America in tourism market when compared to the European tourists. The former were more motivated by the cultural attractions then the later. It is due to this reason the last decade is marked by greater attention in preservation and protection of the cultural historical goods at national and international levels. With more number of agencies organising cultural tours, there is increase in specific forms of business travelling and thus demand for cultural activities’ is increasing (Cisneros-Martínez and Fernández-Morales 2015).
Valletta will benefit from hosting the European Capital of Culture 2018 in terms of looking at the main development drivers for developing cultural tourism polices:
Maintaining and preserving heritage – Valetta is known to be “melting pot of different cultures”. It will maintain the same for hosting the European culture. Therefore, its rich cultural heritage will be preserved for long term that will benefit meaningful encounterwith and between Valetta’s close neighbours, both in and beyond the Mediterranean. Quality urban design will improve the life of residents by creating habitable places (Markwick 2017).
Economic development and employment- recruitment of people for monitoring and preventing environmental degradation. More staff can be recruited for maintenance of gardens, monuments, museums More people will be employed for volunteering and training purpose for hosting European culture. People can earn living as tourism at the target site does not destroy the milieu in which they live (Ebejer 2015).
Physical and economic regeneration- For hosting the European capital of culture Valetta will develop more environment friendly activities that are not accompanied by serious economic difficulties. Therefore, there will be broader culture-led urban regeneration (Boniface 2013).
Strengthening and/or diversifying tourism- Valetta will diversify cultural products beyond beautiful sea and sun. Valetta may diversify its services and products to create better experiences for tourists. For instance, more number of 5 star hotels. Different cultures exist in Valetta and may be diversified by more number of tourists visiting the place and adding value (Ashworth and Tunbridge 2017.).
Retaining population- by sustainable tourism development. It will not only protect the environment but also show proper consideration of customs, communities, cultures, host people, socio-economic system and lifestyles. The population in Valetta can be retained as the cultural heritage and diversity will renovate the life of local communities. Population will be retained as there is no loss of traditional employment system and there will rise in education standards (Quattrone 2015).
Developing cultural understanding- Hosting the European culture will strengthen the cultural understanding of people in Valetta without social disruption. The city will be benefitted by platform created for different communities. The benefits include platform for expression and network for establishing meaningful exchange. The Valletta Market and Strait Streetregeneration will add great commercial value. It is a form of cultural engagement to gain deeper understanding of site (Jovicic 2016).
Conclusion
The report investigated the cultural aspects of Valetta in Malta as the European Capital of Culture 2018. The report presented the cultural tourist types and linked them to their markets in Valletta. The report explains the importance of the McKercher and Du Cros cultural tourism market diagram. The paper analyses the social, economic and environment impact of hosting European Capital of Culture in 2018. It evaluated the Butler Life Cycle (1980) of Malta in terms of destination development. The report demonstrated how cultural tourism is an increasingly important segment of the tourism market. Lastly, the report examined how Valetta will benefit from hosting the European Capital of Culture 2018.
References
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