Three-quarters of tourist establishments in Gozo employ foreigners, but such workers often lack the necessary job skills and cannot speak English well, a survey has found.

The exercise was carried out by the Gozo Tourism Association among members in accommodation, catering, diving centres, tourist attractions, transport, tour operators, DMCs, travel agencies and tourism consultancy firms.

It found that 77% of Gozitan operators employ foreigners and 60% are still encountering difficulties to recruit employees.

The association said respondents called for financial incentives for employees in the tourism sector, as well as a stop to 'unnecessary employment within the public sector'. They also called for an easier process to issue work permits.

When asked about the disadvantages of employing foreign staff, 41% of survey respondents flagged the lack of basic knowledge of the job. Other drawbacks were the low employee retention period (22%) and the poaching of trained staff (24%) while another group of respondents (13%) underlined poor knowledge of the English language.

When participants were asked if their establishment needed upgrading to meet visitors’ expectations, 56% said yes, but 70% said they were not in a financial position to carry out the works.

A quarter of respondents said they expect business this year to be better than last year's; 38% expect this year to be on a par with last year while 37% expect a deterioration.