Balancing Tourism

Quality Isn't Yield

When Leslie Vella joined what's now the Malta Tourism Authority in 1982, his business card had a Telex address and a Telegram address on it. Faxes were still science fiction. Malta had half a million tourists a year, 80% of them British, almost all of them arriving in summer. 43 years later, Leslie is Chief Officer of Strategic Development and Deputy CEO of the Malta Tourism Authority, the architect of Malta's national tourism strategy, and the person responsible for the airline conversations that turned a summer-only island into one of the most diversified year-round destinations in the Mediterranean. In this episode, Ged sits down with Leslie to talk about how Malta actually pulled it off. The conversation moves through the early 1980s collapse that forced Malta to diversify, the siege mentality of being an island nation with no mainland to fall back on, and the practical mechanics of getting airlines to fly year-round rather than seasonal. Leslie also shares his animal analogy for what real seasonal repositioning requires, and explains why Malta now positions itself as an island with a city in summer, and a city on an island in winter. There's a frank section on the gap between high-yield tourists and quality tourists, with Leslie making the case that they're not the same thing. He talks about the work of the Malta Tourism Observatory, the 37 sustainability indicators it tracks, and how satellite data is being used to measure the impact of climate on tourism, not just the other way round. The conversation closes with a preview of where Malta's 2035 tourism strategy is heading, and what carrying capacity actually looks like in practice when 14,000 people show up at the Blue Lagoon on a single day. Leslie joins the Rebalancing Demand panel at the Tourism Seasonality Summit in Rimini on 17 May 2026. Links  Tourism Seasonality Summit [https://seasonalitysummit.com] Visit Malta [https://www.visitmalta.com/en/] Malta Tourism Authority [https://mta.com.mt] Malta Tourism Observatory [https://www.mtobservatory.org] Murmuration [https://murmuration-sas.com]

Defending Barcelona

What if the problem with tourism isn't that there are too many tourists, but that almost nobody is measuring capacity properly? In this episode, Ged is joined by Saverio Bertolucci, an Italian tourism researcher whose work has taken him from the subsea tunnels of the Faroe Islands to a half-empty terminal in North Iceland, and now to Barcelona, where he lives, works, and has been pushing back hard against the city's anti-tourism narrative. Saverio walks through what went wrong with the Faroese tunnel network — built for the fisheries, priced out of reach for tourists, and avoided even by locals. He explains why a startup airline trying to open up North Iceland collapsed inside a year, and what that says about the fragility of off-peak connectivity. And he introduces the concept at the heart of his upcoming keynote at the Tourism Seasonality Summit in Rimini: extended capacity, a way of thinking about destination planning that goes well beyond visitor numbers and into infrastructure, facilities, knowledge and strategic intent. The conversation gets sharper when it turns to Barcelona. Saverio defends the city against the over tourism narrative, takes issue with the abolition of more than ten thousand short-term rental licences, and argues that the new rules will hurt the local economy more than they help it. Ged pushes back, and the result is a properly nuanced exchange about who actually benefits when destinations clamp down on visitor accommodation. Whether you run a DMO, work in aviation, manage a hotel, or just care about where this industry is heading, this is a conversation worth your time. Links Tourism Seasonality Summit [https://seasonalitysummit.com], Low Season Traveller [https://lowseasontraveller.com], Saverio Bertolucci on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/saverio-francesco-bertolucci-7ba315185/]

High Season Sells Itself

Tom Jenkins has been CEO of the European Tourism Association (ETOA) for over twenty years. Before that, he was a tour guide. And in 1991, he sat in Venice and tried to tell the industry it had an overcrowding problem coming. He was roundly ignored. Thirty-five years later, we're finally having the conversation properly. In this episode we talk about where European tourism genuinely stands right now. The North American boom that has run out of steam, what is happening in Asia, and why the situation in the Gulf is creating headwinds that nobody quite knows how to plan around. Tom doesn't sugar coat it. We also get into why the demographic shift in long-haul travel, with older, more affluent and more flexible visitors coming from the US, Japan, Korea and China, is quietly creating the conditions for low season travel to grow in a way it hasn't before. And why tour operators are actually better placed to add value when things are quiet than when everywhere is full and selling itself. Plus: ETOA's shoulder and off-peak marketplace event SHOP 2026, the Tourism Seasonality Summit in Rimini, and Tom's personal off-peak recommendation which, in true form, turns out to be Wales. Links ETOA SHOP 2026, London, 12 June 2026: etoa.org [https://etoa.org] Tourism Seasonality Summit, Rimini, 17 and 18 May 2026: seasonalitysummit.com [https://seasonalitysummit.com] Low Season Traveller: lowseasontraveller.com [https://lowseasontraveller.com] Balancing Tourism is hosted by Ged Brown [https://gedbrown.com], Founder of Low Season Traveller and the Tourism Seasonality Summit.

Grenada's 12 Month Play - Bridging The Perception Gap

Bridging the Perception Gap with Stacey Liburd, CEO, Grenada Tourism Authority Can a Caribbean island really be a 12-month destination? Ged speaks to Stacey Liburd, CEO of the Grenada Tourism Authority and Vice Chair of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, about Grenada's position below the hurricane belt, the perception gap that holds mature destinations back, and what balanced, year-round tourism actually means for local communities. Stacey joined the GTA in June 2025 from the Anguilla Tourist Board, where she led the island through the pandemic to record visitor arrivals. She brings a rare cross-Caribbean perspective to one of the industry's most persistent structural challenges. In this episode: •       Why travellers are no longer coming for sun, sand and sea alone •       Grenada's position below the hurricane belt and why it matters •       How Spicemas, the Lobster & Lambie Festival in Carriacou, and a new Flower and Garden Festival fit into a year-round strategy •       The 18-year run of medals at the Chelsea Flower Show •       Converting 370,000 cruise passengers into overnight guests •       Why airlift is too important to leave to airlines alone •       Measuring tourism success at community level, not in occupancy rates Key quote: “I cannot measure success simply by arrivals and occupancy at the hotels. I have to measure it when the vendors on the side of the road are also seeing the benefits.” Join us in Rimini Stacey joins us at the Tourism Seasonality Summit on 17–18 May 2026 in Rimini, Italy. Full programme and registration at  seasonalitysummit.com About the podcast The Balancing Tourism Podcast is hosted by Ged Brown [https://gedbrown.com], Founder & CEO of Low Season Traveller [https://lowseasontraveller.com] and the Tourism Seasonality Summit [https://seasonalitysummit.com]. New episodes explore how the travel industry can build a more balanced, resilient future. Follow wherever you listen.

We Don't Promote Summer Any More

Natalia Boveda leads international promotion for Visit Costa Del Sol, the official DMO for the province of Malaga. In this episode, she explains how one of Europe's most recognised summer destinations is deliberately redirecting its entire marketing effort towards the low and shoulder seasons. In this episode we cover: * Why brand familiarity from the UK market is the biggest barrier to repositioning * The decision to stop promoting summer altogether and what that means for co-marketing with airlines and operators * How a bimonthly stakeholder committee coordinates the DMO, AENA, regional government and Turespana on route development and seasonal promotion * Malaga's transformation from transit point to year-round city break destination * Winter fam trips and trade education as tools for closing the perception gap * The evidence: rising winter occupancy and hotels that no longer close in December Natalia will be joining us on stage at the Tourism Seasonality Summit, 17-18 May in Rimini, Italy, co-located with Routes Europe, on a panel called "Beyond Summer: Crafting New Experiences to Extend Seasonality." Full programme and registration: seasonalitysummit.com [https://seasonalitysummit.com]