A change process for the Tourism Undergraduate Programme of the University of Malta

Success in tourism depends on having tourism practitioners who are well prepared. The ITTC is instrumental in preparing Malta’s tourism practitioners of the future. The ITTC prepares practitioners who will be able to work in tourism, culture and related industries. The Institute for Tourism, Travel and Culture (ITTC) has recently concluded the Periodic Programme Review (PPR) for the tourism studies undergraduate programme. In this brief report, we explain the process. We also highlight some of the main issues that emerged and explain how these were addressed. This report will be presented in a seminar for stakeholders that will be held on 24 January 2020.peer-reviewe

Molecular mechanisms in haematological malignancies

Haematopoiesis requires the constant production of large numbers of peripheral blood cells. This process is under tight control of transcription factor networks as well as cytokines, growth factors and hormones. We will review the importance of transcription factors in programming the haematopoietic lineage commitment and the role of the microenvironment and the corresponding cellular sensitivity to ensure production of mature functional cells in response to the physiological demand. Understanding the molecular mechanism of this complex process gives the opportunity to identify the underlying molecular deregulation in haematopoietic malignancies. The different levels of deregulation include hyperproliferation, block in differentiation and sensitivity to growth factors. In this review, leukaemic transformation is selected to give evidence of cell signalling deregulation. The clinical implications will be reviewed in the context of the potential opportunities in the future to identify specific therapeutic patient groups that can be defined using prognostic and predictive biomarkers.peer-reviewe

The Maltese gift : tourist encounters with the self and the other in later life

This thesis takes a case study approach of the tourist-host encounter in the Maltese Islands, an ex-British Colony and older British tourists (OBTs). OBTs are an important source market for tourism as this is set to grow in volume and propensity. The research investigates how OBTs negotiate identity and memory through their narratives. It does so by examining what is being transacted at a social, cultural and symbolic level between the Maltese and the OBT. It then enquires as to the extent the previous colonial relationship is influencing the present ex-colonial and neocolonial Anglo-Maltese tourist encounter. The ethnographic study employs a two-pronged strategy. The first interrogates the terms under which spatial and temporal dimensions of the cultural production of the post colony, and the ongoing representations of specific spaces and experiences, are circulated and interpreted by these tourists. The second examines the relationship through the ‘exchange lens' which is manifested along social and cultural lines within the Maltese tourism landscape context. The research indicates that older adult British visitors have a ‘love’ for the island, which is reciprocated by the Maltese Anglophiles, in spite of some tensions between the two nations in the past. The relationship extends beyond a simple economic transaction but is based on more of a social, symbolic and cultural exchange. This research is one of the first to examine the phenomenon of non-economic capital and gift exchange and the role exchange plays in building relationships at the tourist-host interface. The study concludes that the value, which is placed on the gifts, or capital which are generated or exchanged through the tourist encounter, encourages further visits to the island. Much of this value is based on the significance of Empire to the OBTs who re-discover lost traces of Britishness in Malta through experiencing Anglo-Maltese cultural hybridity. It also advances the view that tourism is really about the self rather than the other - or, at least, that the other is in some senses a mirror of the self

[Review of] Dino Cine!. From Italy to San Francisco: The Immigrant Experience

Examination of Dino Cinel\u27s From Italy to San Francisco will take the watchful coordination of both eyes. His introductory chapter draws one eye to clear professional social history, supported by an extensive bibliography, dominated by Italian sources including official provincial and national records and punctuated by a comprehensive bibliographical essay. The other eye is painfully drawn to some questionable scholarship

Has overtourism reached the Maltese Islands?

Tourism is often considered as a desirable activity for the visitors, in terms of recreation, adventure, cultural enhancement and other benefits of travel, and for the host community mostly in terms of the income and employment it generates. With improvements in income and decreases in the cost of travelling, tourism has increased rapidly over the past decades, and in many destinations, the host communities have started to experience the negative side of high rates of tourist inflows, mostly arising from overcrowding, traffic congestion, misbehaviour by visitors and damage to the physical environment. In 2017 and 2018 there were several reports in the media and papers in many academic journals describing the exasperation of the local residents with what became known as ‘overtourism’ – signifying that there are too many visitors to a particular destination at the same time. The objectives of this paper are two-fold, namely (a) to present a literature review on the upsides and downsides of tourism and (b) to assess, by means of a survey, the attitudes towards tourism in Malta, so as to consider whether Malta has reached the stage of ‘overtourism’. The main conclusion of the paper is that overtourism can lead to various social and environmental pitfalls which could outweigh the economic benefits of tourism for the host community. The responses to this survey indicate that this is the situation in Malta at present.peer-reviewe

Overtourism: Its meaning and its impact on the host country

This report relates to a debate held at the University of Malta on the theme of overtourism. Following brief background information on overtourism, the report provides an account of the comments of the panel speakers followed by interventions by the audience, who were mostly students and academic