Three new tours to experience Malta through its cottage industries

Malta’s cottage industry can give an insight into the ways and the lives of the Maltese, thus enriching a tourist’s visit by enabling them a fuller experience of Malta’s way of life.

This is the main concept behind an EU-funded ‘Genuis Loci’ project that was officially concluded yesterday and which gave birth to three new tourist experiences aimed at tourists who want to discover Malta through its smaller and more traditional industries.

A three-day tour focuses mainly on the south eastern-region of Malta and tackles salt pans, stone production and tile production. The five day tour also includes Attard and Rabat and explores the weaving, the old railway, part of which was originally constructed in Malta and Farsons’ brewery, and the Xarolla windmill in Żurrieq. The seven-day tour includes the salt pans in Salini and Gozo namely weaving, lace making and the underground mill in Xlendi.

To further guarantee continuity to those choosing these tours, they can also choose to stay in one of the over 140 tourist accommodation facilities available in the south-east region of Malta. This will also help local economic development.

Funded under the European programme COSME to enhance industrial heritage tourism the purpose of this project is to rediscover the ‘Genius Loci’ or ‘sense of place’ of the involved territories. In Malta, this project developed three, five and 7-day routes across Malta and Gozo highlighting different aspects of the Maltese industrial heritage by featuring ten different Maltese and Gozitan cottage industries such as the production of the Maltese traditional tile the Maltese stone, weaving, beer making, flour mills and salt pans.

“Today’s industrial heritage tourism product proposes a number of trails focusing mainly on large industries – the purpose of Genius Loci was to focus on the smaller historic enterprise – thus giving visibility to a number of small cottage industries which once formed the basis of local trade,” explained Sara McGuire from 5 Senses Ltd, representatives of the EU project in Malta.

“At 5 Senses, we believe that tourism should constantly strive to deliver a more authentic experience to visitors. We also believe in sustainable tourism that focuses on the real essence of the destination and this, places a lot of emphasis on restore economies in order to generate a positive impact on the population, and reinvigorate natural and cultural heritage.”

The Genuis Loci tourism project focused on three types of industrial heritage enterprises across five European countries namely Italy, Malta, Belgium, Hungary and Spain. These industries covered weaving and fibre production, breweries and distilleries and brick and tile work. It seeks to combine several attractions as museums, living industries and industrial heritage sites. In addition, the 10 chosen sites involved in the tourist package, received also the E-FAITH Label; a QR Code label containing multi-languages and multi-media information. The QR code ensures visitors real-time information concerning the places of interest, attractions, museums and services within the itinerary.

The project also established a specific thematic network – INDUSTRIANA – aimed at increasing the value of the developed transnational product.

5-Senses Ltd is an SME established in 2006 and works towards providing quality products and services that target tourism, hospitality, culture and heritage especially in the Mediterranean and neighbouring countries. Its main purpose is to preserve, support and develop tourism, hospitality, culture and heritage products, services and knowledge content through local, EU and other international funding opportunities

“We seek to promote, create awareness and to disseminate knowledge in these fields by hosting activities that promote tourism, hospitality, culture and heritage in the EU context and addressing training needs of tourism, hospitality, culture and heritage sectors. We also seek opportunities to educate providers and consumers on sustainable development issues in tourism, hospitality, culture and heritage sectors,” added Sara McGuire.

One such project was last year’s FOOT - Fit On Olive Trails a project that sought to propose an olive oil heritage trail as a way to discover the history, culture, lifestyle and the deep, shared roots that Malta shares with other Mediterranean countries who also have a history of oil-production.

Another 5-Senses project took place earlier this year. Known as the TastyCheeseTour Project, this was an initiative that sought to encourage locals to look at Malta’s rich cheese-making tradition as an opportunity for rural tourism development.

The Genuis Loci project was led by Apiform srl from Italy and had as partners E-FAITH from Belgium, Wireless Galicia (Spain); the Central Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency (Hungary), Province of Teruel (Spain) and 5 Senses Limited (Malta).

More information about the project can be obtained from sara@5sensesmalta.com and http://www.europeangeniusloci.eu/