Silvia Gilberti
Malta
Silvia Gilberti is 30 years old, and since 2020 she has been working as a Social Enterprise Development Manager for Merill Rural Network in Malta — a social enterprise empowering rural communities through sustainable tourism and local products. With an academic background in Tourism Studies, she specialised in food and wine tourism as a tool for community empowerment and territorial identity.
With her early career in the hospitality sector it has given her a practical understanding of what it means to manage a venue, meet guests’ expectations, and communicate stories through food — an experience that still shapes the way she approachs tourism development today. Alongside her role in Malta, she is also the territorial liaison for Ea(s)t Lombardy – European Region of Gastronomy 2017, a regional network connecting farmers, agritourisms, and producers in northern Italy. This dual experience between Malta and Italy allows her to observe agritourism from two different Mediterranean perspectives — one insular and one continental — both facing similar challenges of sustainability and generational renewal.
She loves travelling to discover the rural heart of other countries, convinced that food and wine tourism can act as a bridge between people and places, contributing to cultural continuity rather than commodification.