Xara Collection’s Chief Commercial Officer, Adrian Tonna, has stressed that the hospitality sector is still facing numerous challenges ahead of the coming summer, particularly in terms of incoming flights.

For instance, he pointed out that the capacity of flights between Malta and the UK is “very limited” compared to 2019, with the UK being a major tourist destination for Malta.

After two years where United States and Australian tourists, who are “statistically high-end tourists”, have practically been “absent”, outgoing travel from those two countries is finally “on the rise and for the majority, Europe is their destination of choice,” Mr Tonna remarked in comments to WhosWho.mt.

While Malta is heading into its first summer without COVID-19 restrictions since 2019, tensions between Ukraine and Russia have also led to a sense of uncertainty within the tourism industry.

Despite the situation in Ukraine and Russia being “very concerning”, Mr Tonna said “booking momentum has been picking up nicely”, particularly since April with prospective booking numbers looking much better for the coming summer than the previous two, inching closer to levels seen in 2019 – when Malta welcomed a record 2.7 million tourists.

Asked about COVID uncertainty, he said that “at this stage very few people are still cautious about staying in hotels,” especially since through the implementation of protocols – such as room cleanliness, hand sanitisation points, Perspex screens, food and beverage services, and mask use - this has led to hotels sending “a strong message that COVID-19 was taken very seriously” by the hotel industry.

Xara Palace Relais & Chateaux / Mdina 

“I also feel that people are looking for smaller properties, with less persons around, making Boutique hotels very popular,” Mr Tonna added.

Additionally, he remarked that the Xara Collection will seek to maintain the same level of cleanliness within rooms and public areas as during the height of the pandemic, as well as having regular hand sanitisation points, as “this is a very important deterrent to the spread of the virus and also puts forward the message that we do not believe COVID-19 vanished but we are mobilising ourselves to work within a scenario where it is part of our lives.”

To ensure the health and safety of both guests and staff members, Xara Collection will continue to follow their current protocols in terms of handling any guests that have COVID-19-related symptoms.

When asked about what measures the hotel has taken to ascertain a good occupancy rate for the summer, Mr Tonna said: “The first and most important part was keeping close contact with our partners even during COVID-19 when the industry was in pure hibernation.”

“It was not only a networking exercise but also served as a mutual support for both parties as all of use were going through tough times,” he added.

Xara Collection’s boutique hotel, The Xara Palace, is part of Relais & Chateaux, a global association of over 540 individually owned hotels, with this association being vital in terms of assessing the current situation and to see “how other, similar properties were dealing with the pandemic across the world.”

“We held regular meetings online, and this was not only a huge support to our team at The Xara Palace but also an inspiration on how to do things in different ways,” Mr Tonna said.

Given the hotel’s relatively small size when compared to others on the island, with it being a 17-room property, Mr Tonna emphasised that the focus throughout the pandemic was to ensure a quality experience, rather than volume.

This was done by “studying how the buying behaviour on the luxury market was evolving, and working on our offering to match this new behaviour and trends,” along with the renovation of rooms, he added.

Apart from this, Xara Collection also focused on sustainability, looking into greener ways of operating, particularly through the opening of The Xara Gardens.

Thanks to The Xara Gardens, the company is managing to grow its own vegetables “through regenerative farming offering the only proper field to fork experience” to guests on the island, as well as recycling food waste with “aquaponics to grow new vegetables in the process with no greenhouse emissions.”

Xara Collection is thus continuing in its strong belief that “offering a unique and curated experience is even more important than rates, to set yourself apart from competition.”

Commenting on the challenges that Malta’s hospitality sector faces this summer, he cited increases in overall operating and food costs and challenges regarding human resources as being two issues that need a “sector-wide discussion and brainstorming to define the best way forward” to ensure guests keep on receiving hotel experiences that match the price while also guaranteeing the hospitality sector stays profitable.

However, such a challenge could also prove to be an opportunity for Xara Collection, with Mr Tonna claiming that “by growing our crops we are not only offering the freshest and healthiest ingredients to our guests, but we are also saving on sourcing and shipping costs at a time where prices are increasing on a daily basis.”

He concluded by saying that “Malta will finally start benefitting from the mileage” Xara Collection could get through the Michelin accreditation of the de Mondoin restaurant, which was one of Malta’s first Michelin star restaurants, that could be “a great marketing tool” for the country.

Mr Tonna has a vast range of experience in different parts of the tourism industry, with one of his roles prior to his current one being Director of Sales and Marketing at Kempinski Hotels’ San Lawrenz Hotel.

Xara Collection is a hospitality and catering group made up of The Xara Palace Relais & Chateaux, The Xara Lodge, de Mondion Restaurant, Trattoria AD 1530 and Xara Catering.