Tourism in Gozo peaked during the week of Santa Marija with hotels reporting they were full, but restaurants struggled as the spending power of both local and foreign visitors dropped, according to Gozo tourism bodies.
Daniel Borg, chief executive of the Gozo Business Chamber, said that while official figures from the week of the public holiday are not yet available, hotels and self-catering accommodation report that they are full until October.
“When it comes to restaurants, however, the feedback was not great,” he said. “From our feedback, when people stay in self-catering accommodation – and the majority of the accommodation supply in Gozo is self-catering – people are preferring more and more to eat at their own accommodation.”
He put this down to the “inflationary push”, which is causing higher food prices as well as a decreased spending power of people holidaying on the island.
‘Not always about the quantity’
“The numbers are there but it’s not always about the quantity,” Borg said. “It’s about the quality and the spending power of both domestic and foreign tourists has dropped. We need to keep the bigger picture in mind. I have spoken about my concerns about overdevelopment in the past.”
Borg also pointed out that more restaurants have opened up in the past few years, which could also partially account for some struggling to attract customers.
Gozo Tourism Association CEO Joe Muscat agreed that, as prices increased across the board, the tourist has less spending power.
The Santa Marija holiday is typically peak tourist season for Gozo with many people from Malta travelling to the sister island.
Muscat said that feedback so far showed that, during the Santa Marija week, Gozo experienced a tourism boost in line with the last two post-pandemic years.
Muscat also said that, while there was no data yet, there seemed to be a trend of domestic tourists staying in property they bought rather than renting farmhouses or hotels.
With no COVID travel restrictions, some Maltese tourists may have opted to go abroad rather than to Gozo this year- Gozo Tourism Association CEO Joe Muscat
This increase in supply of beds could be impacting the rental market and could have a ripple effect on other industries such as catering but it was too early to tell, he said.
He also suggested that, with no COVID travel restrictions, some Maltese tourists may have opted to go abroad rather than to Gozo this year.
Last August, an online survey by the Gozo Tourism Association found that all participants believed the island was losing its charm and characteristics to overdevelopment.
Furthermore, 91 per cent of the survey respondents said the development would deter foreign and local tourists from visiting Gozo.