Investing in people to improve heritage sites

There is no second chance to make a favourable first impression", the Tourism and Culture Minister said after praising Heritage Malta for sending its staff to training events run by the Westin Dragonara Resort because "it is people that make the difference when tourists visit our heritage sites."

The Minister, Francis Zammit Dimech; Antoinette Caruana, the chief executive officer of Heritage Malta and Sandra Scerri, the training manager from the Westin, all spoke at a recent business breakfast about the human resources partnership between the two.

The Westin (who are renowned internationally for their human resources training) gave Heritage Malta a course in customer care training sessions earlier this year. "The joining between Heritage Malta and The Westin is to give back to the community and train the staff because people make the difference at Heritage Malta," Ms Scerri said.

"Human resources is an important element when people go to see our heritage sites - the staff are the ambassadors and their service is benchmarked," she added and said that the staff need to make a good impression so people come back for a, "true Malta experience from start to finish."

Ms Scerri continued to say that her aim was to enhance and develop the skills that the Heritage Malta staff already have, so that they "have pride in their work and they want to show off our heritage... and that Maltese people are special."

She said that this was the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership, and the "training programme will continue next year to keep up the standard."

Ms Caruana highlighted how people can make a difference to our island's important assets - our heritage sites, "here in Malta we focus on a unique product and experience and heritage features prominently in this scenario and economic development," she said.

When quoting figures Ms Caruana said that admissions from Heritage Malta sites have risen to the sum of Lm900,000 - proof that they are reaping the benefit of their new price structure and this year their target is Lm1 million... which is reachable.

She explained that Heritage Malta's mission statement, to maintain a balance between accessibility and protection of our historical sites and museums, is difficult and they are a "national government agency in charge of the management and operation of over 30 of Malta's national museums and sites. Today 20 sites are open seven days a week 365 days a year and employ 220 people with 25 people on loan deployed from other entities." And recently commenced an absorption process of the Malta Centre for Restoration (which has about 100 employees).

The agency had 179 events last year (that's one activity every two days), and use 20 Heritage Malta sites for events... even having events in eight countries - all in all this amounted to 65 lectures and 48 exhibitions. It also works closely with the private sector and has 10 projects on the go including an EU structural funds project for a visitor centre at the main temple sites.

"But to activate all this we need to work as a team which includes developing training and programmes, and setting up clear human resources with policies and procedures," Ms Caruana said.

"Investing in people are our two most important assets because the commitment, enthusiasm and relationship with the public that the staff have is very important," she added.

Dr Zammit Dimech said in a closing speech that due to the merge of tourism and culture into one industry the synergy between the two is there, especially on 'brand Malta' as the two depend on each other.

"Malta's richest resource is our 7,000 years of history," he continued, "so we need to further the training of staff to impart the level of service and The Westin people are well known for their strength in this department."

He added that maybe the complaints made by tourists about our heritage sites could be related to the level of service from the staff. "We need to establish whether we will give a 'wow', good or just average experience for the visitor. We should also love our career and be dedicated and enthusiastic because otherwise tourism becomes just another job and a visitor becomes just another visitor which is bad for the island's tourism."

And tourism is the same as heritage, "it's not just about paying for seeing the site but also the consideration of the experience gained while visiting. And so there is no second chance for a first impression and that depends on all of us," the minister said, concluding that The Westin has proved that the human element of our heritage is very important.

"Heritage Malta is paving the way in this area and I hope that there will be further training, learning and further enjoyment. Because the more we enjoy it the more the visitors will and we can't have heritage without people or the other way round," he said.