Dr Julian Zarb

Dr Julian Zarb

Email Address welcomejuliette@hotmail.com

Level Fellow Member (FTS)

Company Experience Tourism - Researcher, Local Tourism Planning Consultant and Academic

Phone 0035699167805

Bio Julian who lives and works in Malta, based his research on developing an effective local tourism planning strategy and policy, using a community-based tourism model in Malta called Meet the Locals. The community-based concept aims to create an alternative to mainstream tourism, focusing on people and intercultural experiences which range from sampling food specialities to learning about the traditions of the locality; providing opportunities to discover a lesser-known culture, which guidebooks don’t tell visitors about. Julian, who completed his PhD in 2019 finally celebrated his graduation after the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic. Attending the graduation ceremony at the International Convention Centre Wales, Newport he said: “The tourist can experience the peaceful and timeless atmosphere of village life in Mqabba, Kirkop, and Safi while walking along the narrow, winding streets and open piazzas. They can learn how the local specialities like ricotta, cheeselets and honey are made, and sample them during the visit while also discussing the gastronomic history of these specialities with the locals; visit the quarry, the catacombs, and learn about the important role of the local band club. It’s about creating a different type of tourism which isn’t all sun, sea and sand culture” he explained. Meet the Locals was launched in August 2019, and was featured in EasyJet’s in-flight magazine in early 2020, just as the pandemic hit. Despite all that has happened since his studies, Julian thoroughly enjoyed his time at USW and is looking forward to collaborating further with his tutors, Dr Simon Thomas, Senior Lecturer, and Prof Jonathan Deacon, Professor of Marketing, at South Wales Business School. Julian confirmed: “Simon and Jonathan were not only tutors to me, but we have also remained close friends, and I am so grateful for their support throughout the past few years.” Julian has been a lecturer and researcher at the University of Malta for 12 years and is President of the Malta Tourism Society. Previously he worked as a tourism journalist and produced radio programmes on tourism in the country. He chose to study his PhD at USW as a way of combining several different research projects that he’d undertaken during his career, into a portfolio of work to use as a model for starting to make changes in managing tourism. As he explained: “Tourism is more than just an industry; it’s a socio-cultural interaction between the host and the visitor. It’s the bringing together of communities, businesses and local authorities to look at the whole planning process, not simply using a top-down process, but including the locals and asking what they really want.” Julian is also working with the church in Malta to create faith-based experiences, as opposed to religious tourism, with the aim of bringing the church closer to the local community.