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

Visit Malta

Malta Tourism Authority

Malta Tourism Observatory

Murmuration

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, Low Season Traveller, Saverio Bertolucci on LinkedIn

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

Tourism Seasonality Summit, Rimini, 17 and 18 May 2026: seasonalitysummit.com

Low Season Traveller: lowseasontraveller.com

Balancing Tourism is hosted by Ged Brown, Founder of Low Season Traveller and the Tourism Seasonality Summit.

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, Founder & CEO of Low Season Traveller and the Tourism Seasonality Summit. New episodes explore how the travel industry can build a more balanced, resilient future. Follow wherever you listen.

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

Alessandra Priante is one of the most influential figures in global tourism.

As President of ENIT, Italy's national tourism board, and formerly the first woman to serve as Director for Europe at UN Tourism, she has spent her career at the centre of how the world thinks about travel.

In this episode, Alessandra challenges the way our industry talks about overtourism and seasonality. She argues that overtourism is really just a polite word for mismanagement, that seasonality isn't a problem but a context that's rapidly changing, and that destinations not showing up in AI tools like ChatGPT risk becoming invisible to the next generation of travellers.

We also get into the psychology behind how different generations choose where to travel, why citizens need to be at the table alongside airlines, DMOs and hoteliers, and what the current situation in the Middle East means for global aviation and tourism flows.

Alessandra will deliver the opening keynote at the Tourism Seasonality Summit on 17 May in Rimini, Italy, co-located with Routes Europe. Register at https://seasonalitysummit.com

What does AI actually mean for the tourism industry - and are most of us still just reading about it rather than using it? In this episode, Ged is joined by Dado, keynote speaker, author, and technology strategist, whom he met at the Designing Travel event in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The conversation ranges from AI adoption curves to the growing value of authentic human connection, and why the most dangerous place to be right now is the middle ground.

In this episode:

Dado breaks down what he calls the three levels of AI adoption, and why most organisations are still wrestling with level one.

He introduces his "scale and soul" framework, arguing that the best tourism businesses won't choose between technology and human experience; they'll master both.

There's also a fascinating discussion on how AI is reshaping search, what generative engine optimisation (GEO) means for your website strategy, and why smaller destinations may actually be better placed than large ones to capitalise on everything AI has to offer.

Key takeaways:

• Around 70% of organisations are still at the basic adoption stage - figuring out which tool to use at all
• The real competitive advantage in the next 2–3 years will come from combining your own proprietary data with AI platforms
• AI is creating a genuine level playing field for smaller destinations with limited resources
• The 100-hour rule: just 18 minutes a day puts you ahead of 99% of people on any given topic
• Your website should increasingly be structured as a training dataset for machines, not just a magazine for visitors
• TikTok remains significantly undervalued in travel marketing - and it's not just for kids
• The loneliness epidemic presents a genuine and meaningful opportunity for the travel industry

About Dado

https://www.dadovanpeteghem.com

Connect with Dado

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dadovanpeteghem/

The Tourism Seasonality Summit

https://seasonalitysummit.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tourism-seasonality-summit/

In this episode of The Balancing Tourism Podcast, Ged speaks with Richard Lindberg, founder of One Planet Journey and keynote speaker at the upcoming Tourism Seasonality Summit in Rimini.

Richard shares how a slow, five‑month winter journey transformed his own approach to travel and inspired his work exploring what travellers truly seek: meaning, connection, and a sense of belonging.

Together, they unpack the philosophy of deep travel — a mindset that prioritises intention over itinerary and personal relevance over social‑media‑driven bucket lists. Richard explains why deep travel is naturally aligned with low‑season tourism, offering richer experiences, more authentic interactions, and a calmer rhythm that benefits both visitors and residents.

The conversation also touches on:

• How One Planet Journey blends storytelling and research to understand high‑value, experience‑driven travellers
• Why the planning phase is an overlooked joy
• How destinations can shift from volume to value
• The role deep travel can play in addressing over‑tourism

A concise, insightful discussion for anyone rethinking what meaningful travel looks like in 2025 and beyond.