Study on sustainable tourism development models

A substantial grant from the EU Leonardo da Vinci Programme enabled a group of five representatives from the Malta Tourism Society (MTS) to travel to Iceland to study examples of sustainable tourism development from all over Europe.

The five Maltese representatives, together with others from countries such as Britain, Italy, and Belgium spent a week there.

The event, Our Future Is Now, was organised through the European Union of Tourist Officers (EUTO) and supported by the Tourist Board Training (TBT) of Ayrshire, in Scotland, and tourism partners in Iceland. The purpose of the visit was to provide the opportunity to look at ways in which Iceland and other European partners could work with the tourism industry to raise the awareness of the need for a sustainable approach to the development of the tourism product.

Erik van Dyck, president of EUTO, said: "Iceland has experience in these areas from which many tourism officers can learn and that is why EUTO, in partnership with TBT and Icelandic colleagues, is providing the opportunity to discuss sustainable tourism development and its implementation. Representatives did attend from many European countries and considered examples of best practice and learnt lessons from the Icelandic experience".

During the meetings a number of subjects were raised by the Maltese delegation, including the possibility of Malta hosting the EUTO conference in 2006.

The Maltese representatives were Julian Zarb, Malta Tourism Society founder president; Alan Vella, vice-president and EUTO board member; Janet Grech, MTS treasurer, Joe Woods, MTS communications officer, and Denise Farrugia, MTS member.