INTERVIEW | Dorothy Baldacchino: A father’s legacy and the family making it happen

Baldacchino Group’s main sectors of operation are the hotel sector and the property sector. Could you give us an overview of what the group is involved in, both in Malta and Gozo?

We are a diverse business, but our group’s main focus is on property holding, specializing in commercial and residential renting, wedding and event venues, and short-let villa holidays rentals. We also have a spray foam (insulations) company.

When my late father, Joe Baldacchino, had first started out, his business was in woodwork. Baldacchino Woodworks, in fact, still exists, and all our projects are furnished, finished and refurbished by us, including our Kempinski Hotel in Gozo. We also do contract finishings for other businesses, such as for boutique hotels in Valletta. Some of our clients have been with us for many years, because they trust us and remember my father’s work.

While there has been a surge in recent years in imported furniture, made-to-measure furniture is not widely catered for. But we specialise in making bespoke furniture, so we found ourselves a niche in this area.

The Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz is perhaps the most well known venture your group is involved in, and one of the best known hotels in Gozo. What does the hotel offer which the other hotels in Gozo cannot match?

As a business, we never had the mentality of trying to outdo our competitors. My father used to lament that Gozo didn’t used to have accommodation facilities which could attract certain high-quality tourists. The Mediterranean region alone makes it difficult for Malta, and even more difficult for Gozo - since it suffers from double insularity - to stand out. If a country offers good quality properties for tourists, this helps put the location on the map.

When my father decided to launch a hotel business in Gozo he specifically wanted it to be a spa hotel. The spa resort in Gozo was quite an avant-garde when it first opened in 1999, and it helped differentiate us from the other types of accommodation in Gozo. It remains the only internationally branded hotel on Malta’s sister island. Refurbishment in our hotel had been continuous, and we keep updating the property for our repeated guests and new visitors.

What kind of customer does the hotel cater for, in general?

Mainly escape and retreat customers and families travelling for leisure - these are our main target market. We also host groups - such as dentist groups – which come to the Kempinski to participate in things like yoga, which helps them detach and relax while still building their business plans. We’ve hosted big brand companies who come here because they can both engage in leisure activities and discuss business.

In 2007, we extended our hotel to also include self-catering yet serviced apartments - the first of their kind in Malta and Gozo. These have created a new area in our accommodation portfolio which is attractive to families who want to have the freedom and privacy of their own apartment, but also want to be able to have facilities such as breakfast available. Some of our apartments are also animal friendly, allowing our guests to travel with their pets.

Tourism in Malta and Gozo is doing well. But Gozo is known to suffer from a lull in activity during off-peak months. Are the “quiet months” a challenge for the Kempinski Hotel, and how does it manage that challenge?

Having a spa hotel was key in helping us fight the challenge of seasonality, since it made us much less susceptible to it. Our slow months, in fact, are January and November, and October is still a peak month for us, since it is a very popular month to travel for German and other relatively well-off tourists, who consider August to be too hot. The spa allowed us to develop activities which would keep our guests entertained throughout winter.

Our spa has been consecutively awarded best spa in Gozo and in the Mediterranean by the World Travel Awards, and we’re very popular with German and Scandinavian tourists who travel specifically to stay at a spa. This has put Gozo on the map for these sector of tourists.

We always strive to remain innovative. Throughout the years, we have added onto the hotel’s wellness facilities to make it more attractive to guests seeking a winter escape, such as investing in our Oriental Hamam and steam rooms.

We have also invested in our garden, which is probably the biggest hotel garden in Malta and Gozo, benefitting from our land area of 30,000 sq.m. We grow our own produce in its garden, and as much as possible try to have organic practices. We carry out competitions related to vegetable-growing amongst our staff, and our international employees take pride in growing vegetables which are native to their homeland.

Do you encounter challenges when it comes to finding and retaining employees for your hotel and for other areas the group is invested in?

Yes, and increasingly so.

When the Kempinski first opened twenty years ago, most of our staff members were locals from San Lawrenz, and many of these are still employed with us. Today, however, we are indeed experiencing a big problem with finding staff. It is a major challenge to find locals who are interested in the hospitality sector. In terms of our maintenance and house keeping staff, 90% to 95% of these are Gozitan, which marks a clear difference from the situation in this area in Malta. But when it comes to the food and beverage area, we suffer the same problem as Malta in finding staff.

Here we mostly have foreign workers, and their turnover is substantial, with most of them leaving after two years or so. Many of these are foreign management trainees and trainees from hotel schools, who come to our hotel because we are a branded hotel and can therefore attract a certain level of workers who are well-educated in this sector. Hotels that are not branded are in a worse situation, because they might not be able to attract these kinds of employees.

The Kempinski in Gozo is also considered a teaching hotel, and is attractive to foreign trainees because English is one of our official languages, and also, due to the relative small size of the establishment, they are able to gain expertise in a varied number of areas.

I feel, however, that in Malta we are failing to attract our young people to the hospitality area and we’re losing the knowledge of the art behind the profession. The emphasis when it comes to choosing a profession appears to be on areas such as accounting, medicine, law, and so on. This has always been the case, but the hospitality sector was still considered a viable option, even when it comes to summer jobs. Nowadays, however, it seems that the sector is looked down upon. While students are willing to work at McDonald’s, they don’t consider hotel work a “cool” job. But, if done properly, there is actually a strong element of pride in hotel work.

There is a lack of realisation that working in a four- or five-star hotel brings about good prospects of a promising career. The hospitality industry offers good opportunities for growth, and once one reaches higher levels in the sector, the salaries become very considerable. This is especially true if one starts working with a well-known high-end hotel, and opportunities open up even away from Malta. People tend to overlook this - they don’t appreciate that working with a branded hotel allows them to climb up the ladder and opens the door for international exposure. It’s different from working with a restaurant, for instance, where there is not much room for development.

The accommodation sector locally - but also internationally - is facing a challenge from alternative accommodation sources, such as apartments offered on Airbnb. Which is the best way to counter this competition from such non-traditional sources?

Market trends are changing, that is true. But Airbnb does not have a major effect on us, firstly because our target market are customers looking for a spa experience, and secondly because of the self-service residence which we offer, which are able to offer an alternative Airbnb apartments.

Moreover, the Baldacchino Group also operates five holiday villas in Mellieha and Zurrieq which further counter Airbnb.

The Gozo tunnel has been one of the most topical issues of the past months. As someone who operates a major Gozo business, what are your views on the matter? Do you think that a permanent link with Malta will help Gozo, or will the negatives outweigh the positives?

I definitely believe that we need to have a permanent link - be it a tunnel, or something else. There needs to be a way of driving directly from Malta to Gozo and vice verse. The Gozo Channel service has drastically improved, especially with the recent addition of the fourth ferry. .

Another aspect here, I think, is the need to cater for certain Gozo Channel customers who want a quiet area on the ship where they can stay during the trip. At the moment, such facilities, which are desirable for people travelling for business or higher-spending tourists, for instance, are not available.

To attract higher-spending clients, such facilities need to be in place.

Furthermore, another issue is the need to queue for the ferry. While locals have gotten use to this, someone coming from a Scandinavian country, for instance, might not look forward to queuing in summer temperatures. A permanent link would solve this problem. But in the interim, something has to be done to make the Gozo Channel ferry more comfortable for these kinds of travellers.

Gozitans, I think, are apprehensive about the tunnel because they fear it might transform Gozo into another Malta. But, on the other hand, a tunnel would greatly help with travel time. Gozitans currently have to wake up at ungodly hours to arrive for work or university in Malta on time.

Do you feel Gozo might eventually suffer from an element of “over-tourism”, where so many tourists come that they end up harming the actual touristic product and lowering the quality of life for locals?

Although I agree with a permanent link, I think we need to be very careful to maintain Gozo’s character and not turn it into a commercial and construction jungle, like Malta. I don’t believe Gozo should be completely preserved as is. Certain improvements can be put in place, while still keeping the island’s character. We need to go in the direction of the beautification of Gozo. And construction should not take place in certain places which are unspoiled. An unspoiled area should be kept as it is, while flats, for instance, should be built in areas where there are already similar buildings in place. If the need arises for more space, this should be done through planning, not by scattering development here and there without any plan.

Gozo should be marketed as a separate entity, and it should target retreat tourism. Such tourists are generally more mindful and discerning, and usually in their mid-30s to early 60s, with a higher spend per capita. They aren’t out to dilute the resources of the island. Malta’s love for Gozo always stemmed from the fact that it was considered a retreat. All we have to do is extend this concept to the world, and nothing major needs to be changed. Gozo already has a number of retreats and cultural activities which cater for this. Let’s look at Malta as the city, and Gozo as the green retreat.

When it comes to the government’s investment in Gozo, and measures to address the island’s “double insularity”, do you think enough is being done to encourage Gozitans to keep living and working in Gozo?

Better is always possible. Any investment in Gozo, has always made a significant and positive impact, not just for the local community, but also for all the visitors, Maltese and International that seek refuge in the island’s tranquility. This island jewel deserves more of our continous and utmost care.

When it comes to encouraging Gozitans to work in Gozo, I think tax incentives can be a useful option.

There has been a lot of discussion about the so-called “gender pay gap” in Europe and Malta, and about the relative lack of women in decision making positions locally. As a woman occupying an important role, do you feel there are challenges locally for women who want to grow professionally?

Our father never ever made his daughters feel like we were anything less because we were women. Our family group’s management is predominantly female, consisting of three women and two men. Right from the start, our father involved us in the business, and made no distinction between us and his sons. He embraced this philosophy and instilled it in us since we were young. We never felt we were any less from anyone just because of our gender.

As a group, we always ensured equal opportunities for women, and always had female head of departments and general managers. We always treated men and women employees equally when it comes to salaries. Maybe it’s my dad’s influence which set the stage for the way we operate in this regard… but, looking back, even when my dad was younger, it was his sister who took care of his accounts, and it was my mother who pushed him to speak to the Kempinski group to open a hotel in Gozo. Women were quite strong in my father’s family.

This said, I do believe the mentality when it comes to gender equality has improved in Malta. The one thing I think still keeps women back in the need for childcare, and more needs to be done here, including by providing facilities for women to bring their children to work when they need to, such as after school.