Project management – Do we really understand the key principles of this job?

If we are to pursue the age-old idea of transforming these islands into a quality destination rather than a mass-tourist destination then we have to consider a number of factors including the professionalism and commitment of the employees and staff (a matter we discussed two weeks ago on this page) as well as the state of the infrastructure and the project management process – and this, I have to say leaves so much to be desired today.

Walking or driving anywhere today around these islands gives one the impression that this is one big building site in a shambolic state of disrepair and carefree attention. What comes to mind is something I had read when I lived in the UK, back in the 1970s, about the islands, it went like this: “Malta should be a nice place once it is ready!” Well it seems the work never stopped and the building site continues today – in Naxxar along St Paul Street and down Iklin Valley where work has been going on for a year now with no sign of any conclusion and the road works in the Marsa and Santa Lucija areas which also seem to be at a standstill. Not to mention the destruction of the local character in our towns and villages as we demolish traditional houses and buildings and replace them with abstract and horrid blocks of concrete that lack the local character as well as the aesthetics we used to experience in the honey-coloured buildings and of which so many travelogues and men of letters wrote over the centuries.

I must not forget the environmental damage being done along the old road leading to Mdina and Rabat from Attard. All these in the name of “progress”?! But will this progress really bring the quality visitor? Will it attract the tourist who wants to experience the Mediterranean culture and character? Sadly, I have to say this will bring that visitor who has no interest in Malta and Gozo but may simply be looking for “leisure” in the crudest and most base form. So what can we do about stopping this vandalism to our character and culture?

For one thing we should take a good long look at how effective and efficient our project management procedure is. Project management is not simply a matter of ensuring work progresses but, more important, how that work progresses. We need to adopt the integrated approach to planning which includes a consistent and continuous consultation with the key stakeholders including the local authority, the local community and the local businesses. Unfortunately, the top-down approach to planning has become a very secular and covert way of planning projects which benefit a small (and sometimes unethical) authority or businesses. Project management is about the community taking an active part in their locality and country, it is about implementing the sense of civic pride and awareness, it is about learning to put in place the basic principles of sustainability, it is about not shirking our responsibilities towards the environment or the planet. Project management is not a job; it is a vocation, a commitment to others. If we really want to attract the quality visitor to these islands then we must learn to plan our projects sustainably and carefully together.

Perhaps I can summarize the way forward in three simple stages (we are all familiar with this method of remembering our responsibilities as we experience the COVID pandemic), the stages are: Think, plan and act.

Dr Julian Zarb is a researcher, local tourism planning consultant and a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Malta. His main area of research is communitybased tourism and local tourism planning using the integrated approach