By Denis Sheehan, Managing Director, Accessible Hospitality Alliance: Malta, where hospitality culture meets accessibility.
I have just returned from Malta, where The Mediterranean aha Forum, in Partnership with VisitMalta Incentives & Meetings, takes place on 18 March. The visit was part of the final shaping of aha’s Forum formula in a destination whose hospitality culture is naturally aligned with welcoming everyone.
I travelled with Angela Green, Event Director at Accessible Hospitality Alliance, and we spent time with Shawn Pisani, aha Advisory Board member and project lead in Malta. Shawn first joined us in London at the aha Forum in November. He spoke then about Malta, about how hospitality is embedded in the nation’s culture, and about how accessibility has the capacity to strengthen that culture. This visit did not alter that sense, it leant in adding texture.
Our discussions began with VisitMalta Incentives & Meetings, a division of the Malta Tourism Authority and principal partner of the Forum. We met with Alaine Ciantar, Director of VisitMalta Incentives & Meetings (VMIM).
VMIM’s ambitions are clear: driving sustainable growth for Malta’s tourism sector while positioning the islands as a destination that enables business success and meaningful experiences.
With VMIM’s global network of offices, including London, the partnership between VMIM and aha now sits comfortably across both markets. Members of the VMIM team will play an active role at the Forum, including leading a roundtable and contributing across the programme. What stood out was the ease with which accessibility sat within the wider conversation, a natural part of what a future-facing destination chooses to stand for.
From there, our conversations moved into place and delivery. We spent time at Malta Marriott Resort & Spa, the venue for The Mediterranean aha Forum. Located on the seafront at Balluta Bay, a short walk from Sliema and a short drive from Valletta, the resort blends the relaxed rhythm of Mediterranean life with contemporary spaces designed for business and leisure travellers. The Forum will take place within its state-of-the-art conference centre. What resonated most was how hospitality is talked about here. It is relational, it is lived, it is rooted in an instinctive sense of welcome that you feel.
That same quality came through in our meeting with Angela Bettoni, a writer, performer, and advocate with Down syndrome. Angela brings a personal perspective to conversations around visibility, creativity, and inclusion, shaped by years of speaking openly about navigating life and the stage as a disabled person. At the Forum, she will share her story and perform one of her dance routines. It is not an addition made for effect; it reflects something already present, the understanding that inclusion here is cultural.
We then visited the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MTIA), the leading Association in the Maltese hospitality and tourism sector. The MHRA represents the interests of its members on several national policy making bodies led by CEO, Andrew Agius Muscat. Discussions with Andrew focused on the MTIA and its members to be part of the forum. Shawn will be addressing their next meeting detailing the forum and what it means to the hospitality industry in Malta. Andrew is an advocate of accessibility, already working on a number of accessibility projects across the Mediterranean. Shared purpose shone through our meeting.
We also met with Dean Micallef, CEO of ECMeetings, our Forum management partners. With more than 20 years’ experience delivering international events across Malta, Portugal, and Italy, ECMeetings brings deep technical expertise, matched by cultural fluency. Dean will be working closely with Angela Green to ensure aha’s Forum formula is expressed through a distinctly Maltese hospitality lens.
The final meeting of the visit was with Esmeralda Micallef Zarafa, CEO of the Lino Spiteri Foundation (LSF). LSF is an enabler of opportunity and inclusion, empowering disabled people to thrive professionally, foster independence, and enhance quality of life. Its work centres on creating pathways into meaningful employment that recognise individual strengths and potential.
Through tailored professional development, recruitment, and long-term partnerships with forward-thinking organisations, LSF helps build workplaces where accessibility and diversity act as catalysts for innovation and growth. This philosophy will be visible at the Forum. Four LSF students will be working alongside the front-of-house and reception teams at Malta Marriott Resort & Spa, including alongside Angela Green and the event team. Esmeralda will also lead a Forum roundtable exploring career pathways into Malta’s hospitality industry, grounding discussion firmly in lived experience rather than abstraction.
Across these meetings, a consistent thread emerged, one that felt familiar from our earliest conversations with Shawn in London. Malta’s hospitality culture is deeply human, generous, and rooted in welcome. When viewed through a contemporary lens of accessibility and inclusion, it complements the direction of travel that has been taking shape through aha Forums since 2025.
Malta is not simply hosting The Mediterranean aha Forum. It is shaping it. With its layered history, modern infrastructure, and outward-looking culture, Malta offers a natural home for the Forum.
Accessible Hospitality Alliance thank all our sponsor partners below working alongside us.
