Suchergebnisse

The island of Malta has served as a strategic colony since the dawn of history. Since Phoenician and Roman times, the island has been an important base in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Its last colonisers, the British, spent about 180 years using the islands for their imperial needs. The official closing of the British base on 31 March 1979 heralded a new economic and social reality supposedly unhampered by the exigencies of foreigners. Two major post-memory reactions kicked in – nostalgia and aversion to ex-colonial life. The postcolonial Maltese generations exhibit a range of reactions oscillating between love and hate for the British. On the other hand, British ex-service personnel and their families have continued to feel an affinity with the island base which they had come to acknowledge as a second home. This allows for a new type of relationship between the Maltese people and their British visitors where issues of colonial post-memory are negotiated. These are seen at their best in the local tourism industry. Malta woos British tourists and goes to great effort to attract them. It uses to its advantage the colonial affinity to create an attractive destination for the British which benefits the locals and the Maltese economy. In Malta post-memory has evolved in line with necessity and expediency, where animosity, though manifestly tangible, has gradually morphed into a rather benign residue in the collective reaction to the colonial past.

This paper asks how the Phoenicians' Route acts as a framework for intercultural dialogue in today's Mediterranean in the context of tourism in the region. It provides an answer with reference to recent aspects of the Route's development in the field of intangible heritage. The focus of the paper is on those elements of intangible heritage that accompany, bring to life and highlight the social relevance of heritage by bringing to the fore the appreciation of artefacts, sites and monuments by Mediterranean communities. The paper emphasises the educational and social components of the actions that compose the Route in relation to tourism aspects, by looking at how these activities relate to the variety of cultural manifestations that make it up. This paper pays special attention to the inter-relation between educational, social and tourism activities and cultural manifestations in Malta, a recent member of the Route. The relatively equally recent entry of Malta into the European Union will provide a general context of international cultural collaboration by this island state. Furthermore, special attention is given to the annual Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival, in order to study the way the approach towards research about the Phoenicians supported by the Route is applied in the context of the Festival. It will be observed how the Festival links past and present by seeking inspiration from historical episodes of intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean, such as those pertaining to the Phoenicians, and applying them to contemporary, pressing needs of artistic, cultural, political and social exchange within the Mediterranean space. Together with a focus on the Festival, this paper also refers to examples of best practice and recommendations for future policies and actions based on other areas of activity in Malta related to the Route. These include international seminars addressing intercultural dialogue and European collaboration supporting capacity building, skills development, entrepreneurship and the furthering of innovation and digitalisation in cultural and tourism itineraries. ; peer-reviewed

The paper considers the hosting of the European Capital of Culture in Malta in 2018 in the light of the cultural and social effects on Malta's capital city, Valletta. Governance and impacts on Malta's tourism are also debated. The cultural sector was positively impacted with a varied and innovative programme. The expectations for Valletta 2018 was that the cultural scene in Malta would be taken to a much higher level. This did not happen largely because politicisation undermined the overall governance of the event. In the last two decades, ECoC was one of many projects and initiatives that brought about a process of Valletta's regeneration. There are concerns, however, that excessive commercialisation has reduced liveability. ; peer-reviewed

This study aims to examine the extent to which food in Maltese communal gatherings is successfully staged to be understood by both the community and the tourist. Research indicates that distinctive and particular foods have typified such gatherings for centuries. Nevertheless, this characteristic is overshadowed by the commercialization, commoditisation and alteration of traditional food and foodways for wider preference in a globalised environment. Such foods have also been adapted for easier consumption in informal settings such as the village festa. Communal gatherings serve as a platform for negotiation and renegotiation of their cultural identity. The study suggests that to achieve the fine balance between traditional cuisine and an inclusive democratised product, community involvement needs to take place through active citizenship, stakeholder input and professional interpretation. ; peer-reviewed

This handbook is for heritage interpreters and interpretation managers at heritage sites to help them improve the experiences and enjoyment of their senior visitors. Throughout Europe the proportion of people that are over 55 years old is increasing. A great many of them are active citizens with interests in heritage and the environment, and with the time and resources to satisfy these interests and enthusiasms. They are an important market for heritage sites and one that is expected to grow in the coming decades. The handbook is a toolkit of guidelines and ideas on how sites can be improved for senior visitors. It provides background information about the role of interpretation in explaining natural and cultural heritage, presents a comprehensive list of essential recommendations for the management of sites for senior visitors and offers ideas on how to market sites to them. It is one of the main outputs of a project supported by the European Union Grundtvig Lifelong Learning Programme, Heritage Interpretation for Senior Audiences (HISA), which ran from 2013 to 2015 and involved partners from Germany, Italy, Malta, Poland and the United Kingdom. ; LLP GRUNDTVIG 2013-1-DE2-GRU06-16264 1 ; N/A