The importance of English language schools in Malta : a stakeholders’ analysis

Abstract

The aims and objectives of this long essay are to acquire greater understanding on the importance of English language schools towards Malta’s tourism industry, to learn and analyse who are the key stakeholders that are most important for Malta’s English language schools and their relationship with each other. This long essay will enable the researcher to evaluate the key challenges opportunities and threats for the development of English language schools to develop Malta’s tourism. To achieve these aims and objectives, a qualitative method of research was adopted to obtain a more holistic view from major key stakeholders of the ELT industry. Representatives from five established English language schools, as well as, representatives from the Ministry for Tourism, the Malta Tourism Authority, FELTOM and a host family where interviewed. These vital interviews were crucial to this long essay as they enabled the researcher to gather greater insight and understanding on the English language tourism industry in Malta. The general findings suggest that, educational tourism, more specifically the ELT industry is one of the main pillars of Malta’s tourism industry. Furthermore, this niche tourism market constitutes an important sector in Malta’s overall tourism product and contributes both towards Malta’s economy as well as to Malta’s society. Furthermore, a decline in key stakeholders, mainly, host families and teachers has been recorded. This needs to be addressed to improve the situation. These findings suggest that all key stakeholders need to design a competitive road map for the next ten years. This would help the industry to analyse key performance indicators and place Malta in a better strategic position to be better equipped to compete, to evolve and improve the quality of this niche tourism sector.