Malta’s AI Tourism Platform for a Sustainable Industry Future

Tourism in Malta has evolved into a resilient and mature industry, employing thousands of workers, and attracting millions of visitors.

Despite this success, the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) recognises the need for sustainability and embraces the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to support its operations. Efficient decision-making is critical for such a transformation to renew the industry; thus AI is becoming the forefront of this effort.

Malta launched its first AI strategy in 2019 and identified tourism as a strategic area for investment. AI is a computer technology that processes data in every industry, analyses information, identifies patterns and generates insights. Based on this information, the MTA began investing in the planning and design of its AI Tourism Platform as early as 2020, well before AI gained the awareness and recognition it has nowadays. These efforts led to a further collaboration with the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, which is now implementing this platform.

Tourism is a versatile industry, with extensive coverage incorporating aspects from culture and heritage to transportation and upkeep. The efficient analysis and understanding of all aspects of tourism is key to better planning towards a more sustainable future. The AI Tourism Platform is specifically designed with this in mind.

The Need for Quality Data

The vision behind the platform is to empower the MTA to deliver a better touristic experience in Malta. As data sources grow, they offer opportunities for personalisation, but also present challenges in processing volumes of information. Good quality of information is essential. Although AI is associated with modern technology, the ‘garbage in, garbage out’ principle still holds.

Collecting good-quality data is not easy. The management of data in the tourism industry is challenging due to the industry’s widespread nature and the varied formats used by the different industry verticals, which in turn produce fragmented data.

Malta’s Tourism Data sources & MTA’s Research Foundations

Good quality and reliable data is the point of departure in developing a data sharing platform. In this regard, Malta has a rich portfolio of tourism data generated by several entities other than the MTA itself, such as the National Statistics Office, the Malta International Airport and Heritage Malta. Considering the various entities involved in this project, good governance practices with stakeholders is of utmost importance.

Frequent meetings are organised with the main data source providers to discuss technical and ethical aspects associated with data sharing. Data sharing agreements are being developed with the data source providers to ensure transparency, anonymity, accountability, and levels of accessibility.

The MTA's research team strives to ensure that the data in this system is accurate, complete, relevant, and timely. This project builds on the solid research foundations MTA has harnessed over the recent decades. Since its inception, the MTA has regarded research as essential for developing effective strategies and making evidence-based decisions. One of the most important instruments is the Traveller Survey, which provides key insights into visitor experiences, preferences, and subsequent trends.

Data can be AI’s greatest strength or biggest weakness. For this reason, the AI Tourism Platform is being built upon the good research practice that evolved within MTA, which ensures an accurate and ethical way of deploying such a sensitive system. Moreover, the platform is built with the principle of privacy by design and maintained throughout. The AI Tourism Platform does not stop there. It is designed and built upon a modern cloud infrastructure, securely hosted by the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA), allowing further system growth.

This infrastructure is built to house larger data sources in the future and adapt to the growing needs of the industry. As a commitment to responsible AI development, the platform is currently undergoing evaluation within MDIA’s Technology Assurance Sandbox. This process aims to build stakeholder confidence in the platform’s reliability and adherence to ethical standards.

This investment is intended to strengthen MTA’s research capabilities and inform decision-making by facilitating data cleaning, preprocessing and analysis to extract meaningful and actionable insights for the industry. This will evolve further at the pace of the industry.

As more data sources become available from different stakeholders such as accommodation, transportation, sentiment, and others, Malta will have the right platform to host and analyse this data for better insights and to strengthen the industry.

Towards a Sustainable Tourism Future

The AI Tourism Platform does not stop at being a modern data management and analysis platform. Its higher arching vision and impact will be achieved through its capability to offer the public and industry stakeholders with open data and interfacing capabilities.

These will empower different stakeholders to connect with the platform and exchange data. This lays the groundwork for improved product design, more accurate recommendations for tourists and predictive analytics, which can empower sustainable planning.

MTA’s commitment to using the latest AI technology and infrastructure is another step towards improving the island's touristic experience while preserving Malta’s natural and cultural heritage.