A Practical Handbook for Stakeholders
This project is currently in its research phase
And needs community and stakeholder input
Have your say by responding to one of these three questionnaires:
If you are a producer (farmer, fisher, artisan), tour operator, working in gastronomy and hospitality, or a policymaker...
If you live in Malta...
If you are visiting...
SEED, in collaboration with the Malta Tourism Authority, is developing Malta’s first national guide for rural tourism stakeholders, a practical, evidence-based reference to support sustainable and community-rooted rural tourism across Malta and Gozo.
The guide is a collective, evidence-based initiative designed to:
Identify Opportunities & Risks...
Rural tourism is beneficial, until it isn't. This study will reveal challenges and gaps, to provide practical guidance grounded in evidence and local realities.
Clarify Reality...
This guide explores the true dynamics of rural tourism, highlighting our realities, while offering tangible principles for practical use.
Support Decisions...
By offering evidence-based tools and insights, the guide empowers all actors to make better-informed decisions in rural tourism development.
Provide a Shared Reference...
The initiative serves as a collective, shared reference point, offering actionable principles to support well-informed decisions for all stakeholders involved in rural tourism.
Promote Sustainable Practices...
The guide promotes sustainable and culturally respectful practices, heightening the understanding of real conditions to strengthen responsible and ethical rural tourism across communities.
Instil Cooperation...
This process is led by SEED and supported by the Malta Tourism Authority, with broad stakeholder consultation shaping its content.
Who is this guide for?
This tool is intended to serve as a strategic reference point for all actors interested in fostering responsible rural tourism, including:
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Project leaders and rural entrepreneurs
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Farmers, fishers, breeders and artisans
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Rural communities and residents
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Landowners
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Local businesses
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Public authorities and local councils
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Policy makers
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NGOs and civil society organisations
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Tourism guides
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International businesses operating in Malta
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Researchers and academia
This guide seeks to avoid a tourism-only lens. Rural Tourism is influenced by agriculture, transport, land use, environment, culture and governance, amongst other things. All these actors matter.
Who is leading this project?
The National Guide for Rural Tourism Stakeholders is a joint effort by SEED and the Malta Tourism Authority. While SEED leads research and drafting, the Guide is shaped through a sector-wide process that values the knowledge, needs, and experiences of Malta’s rural communities and tourism actors.
The Guide reflects diverse voices: residents, rural operators, cultural and environmental actors, tourism businesses, academia, local councils, NGOs, and public institutions. It promotes shared principles and good practices, while respecting the uniqueness of Malta’s rural identity.
By bringing together SEED's field knowledge, MTA’s strategic direction, and input from stakeholders across Malta and Gozo, we aim to create a resource that protects authenticity, fosters sustainable growth, and supports rural tourism that benefits all.
This project grew out of Merill's long experience working at the intersection of agriculture, culture, and tourism. Now a core initiative within the SEED ecosystem, for over sixteen years the Merill Rural Network has been empowering farmers, artisans, breeders, bakers and small-scale producers to diversify their income through rural tourism. This gives us practical insight to support the process, not to dictate it. Our role is to connect existing expertise rather than replace it.
Why this Guide matters
Tourism is changing... and so must the way we support those at the heart of Malta’s rural tourism offer. Today’s travellers increasingly seek meaningful, immersive experiences rooted in nature, food, and culture. As a result, farmers, fishers, artisans and breeders - whose core activities lie in the primary sector - often find themselves stepping into the role of tourism hosts.
But without a solid background in tourism management, this shift doesn’t come without risks. In a fragile territorial context like Malta, there is a growing danger that traditional activities are abandoned in favour of tourism-only services. When this happens, we risk losing the very authenticity that makes rural tourism valuable and, with it, centuries-old skills, crafts and knowledge.
This Guide, developed in close collaboration with the Malta Tourism Authority, is our collective response. It emerges from over a decade and a half of working alongside Malta’s rural communities, and it reflects a shared need: to bring clarity, credibility, and sustainability to those working at the crossroads of agriculture, craft and tourism.
Beyond offering practical tools and shared standards, the Guide will be complemented by recommendations to encourage the long-term strategic planning of the sector. A starting point for a national dialogue on how to nurture rural tourism in ways that are aligned with Malta’s unique rural identity.
What this Guide will include
Understanding Rural Tourism in Malta
This section will explore what rural tourism means in the Maltese context, considering the peculiarities of the insular country. It will also highlight how rural tourism is defined, imagined and practiced across the Maltese Islands.
Mapping the Stakeholder Landscape
A grounded overview of the actors shaping rural tourism across the Maltese Islands, outlining their roles, interactions, and areas of influence, while highlighting gaps in coordination and opportunities for stronger collaboration.
Guiding Principles and Best Practices
A ready-to-use toolkit for existing or prospective rural tourism actors, with a set of shared principles, inspiring case studies, and actionable tools, tailored to the Maltese context and rooted in field insights.
The guidelines will be structured around 6 pillars:
I. Inclusive governance and cooperation
II. Environmental respect and regeneration
III. Community empowerment and social justice
IV. Visitor engagement and experience
V. Cultural authenticity and living heritage
VI. Economic stability and resilience
What is 'Rural Tourism' in the Maltese context?
Too often ‘rural tourism’ evokes a narrow range of experiences limited to accommodation on farms.
In Malta there is broader potential for small-scale, collaborative and place-based hospitality that is attuned to the local context, strengthening environmental stewardship, social and economic resilience, and cultural continuity. The ‘rural’ in Malta encapsulates traditions and practices of production and stewardship that survive in villages and urban spaces. It encompasses crafts and gastronomy along with farming and nature.
In this guide, we are considering Rural Tourism as a form of tourism rooted in the island’s heritage, traditions, and communities, and are looking to include authentic experiences connected to:
Agriculture
Trades
Fishing
Fishing
Food
Crafts
Nature
A participatory and evidence-based approach
This guide is being developed through desk research, field visits, interviews and questionnaires.
It will mix consultation (gathering views) and co-creation (shaping ideas together).
Transparency and trust guide the process.
The aim is not to validate pre-existing positions, but to test assumptions, identify overlooked challenges, capture diverse realities and build legitimate and grounded guidance.
Who is leading
this project
Océane Droulin
Project Manager
Samwel Grima
Project Coordinator
I am Océane, the Project Manager. I specialise in territorial governance, with a particular focus on how policies, planning frameworks and development choices shape landscapes, communities, and long-term sustainability. My work has addressed a range of challenges, including the barriers and opportunities for agritourism development in northern France, the diversification of mid-mountain ski resorts in the face of climate change, environmental planning within the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolitan Area, and the broader adaptation of tourism to climate impacts.
Although I am based in France, Malta holds a special place for me, as I completed my Erasmus there - a formative experience that shaped my connection to the country. I have been struck by its beauty, cultural richness and diversity, but also by how fragile and exposed its territories are. Managing this project is therefore both a professional and personal commitment: to help rural tourism stakeholders develop an authentic and sustainable form of tourism, while clearly highlighting the risks of unmanaged growth and the importance of long-term stewardship.
I am Samwel, the Project Coordinator. Trained in social anthropology, I have conducted fieldwork with rural landholders in Malta to understand how rapid economic growth, urbanisation and speculation shape the value of land and food, and how these are mobilised to construct and contest legitimate claims to land. My work with smallholders, and with organic and conventional farmers has explored changing meanings of farmerhood and stewardship, treating land relatedness as a plural and localised reality despite shared structural pressures.
I am interested in how rural tourism can sustain livelihoods, encourage fair collaboration, and preserve natural landscapes. Born and raised in Malta, I have witnessed dramatic change in a short period of time, alongside a growing desire to understand and re-evaluate our shared inheritance. My work with farmers and indigenous flora has shown me that anxiety about loss can clarify what we value, and open space to imagine forms of tourism that emerge from local priorities rather than override them within a changing island environment.
Stay informed and contribute!
This guide belongs to Malta’s rural communities and stakeholders, while benefiting even the broader ecosystem!
The development of the Guide is currently underway: we aim to finalise, publish, and disseminate it by the end of 2026. Nonetheless, this guide is our shared responsibility. Don’t hesitate to be part of the transition toward a more sustainable and community-led model of rural tourism.
If you wish to contribute, stay informed, or be among the first to read it - register your interest here!
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