Gozo revisited

Imagine having a sheep and instead of feeding it and milking it, you just milk it... after some time you kill it." The Gozitan businessman talking to me is convinced that this is what is happening to Gozo. "Income tax, VAT, contributions, fees, licenses imposed by government are milking us dry at a time when business is down. Our costs are up, our income down."

A hotel manager wonders how sustainable all this is. "Our occupancy rate in Gozo is on average 35 per cent all the year round. No wonder more hotels are closing down. This is making Gozo tourism more seasonal and fragile. Expensive helicopter and Gozo Channel trips are making travelling to Gozo more inaccessible and unaffordable." Less tourists and fewer Maltese are visiting Gozo and this means less business for hotels, apartments and restaurants."

A small hotel owner says: "In 1969 the tourism season in Gozo was June till the end of September. Then it came up to March till November and now it has dwindled down to the two summer months from July till August. Maltese tourists on average are spending fewer nights in Gozo, down to 1.9 nights. It will soon be added to the tourist guide story that 'once there used to be tourists and hotels in Gozo', like we do today when we tell tourists that once there used to be families living on Comino. "It is a pity as we have invested all our lifetime in a tree that when it was time to start picking up the fruits, the gardener decided to cut it off."

One of the top Gozitan businessmen stresses how worried he is about the future. "Hundreds are losing their jobs and cannot find new ones. Tomorrow will be more difficult than today. In the next 10 years we need to create 1,400 new jobs for those starting to work for the first time, apart from finding jobs for those who are unemployed at present. "Where are these new jobs going to come from? How are we going to generate new economic growth?" He has no doubt that Gozo needs a new beginning, a serious action plan to revive its economy.

Gozo is facing an economic crisis. Till mid-2002 the number of Gozitans registering for work was less than 500. In the last 17 months, from November 2003 onwards, the number of unemployed started rising sharply. At first it reached over 600. In the last five months it is over 700.

According to the Business promotion policy issued by the Ministry for Gozo at the end of January 2002 there were 839 persons working in factories at the Xewkija Industrial Estate. At the beginning of this year this number was down by half to 411.

Meeting the Gozo Business Chamber and the Gozo Tourism Association I am told that tourism is facing the same problems. More hotels are closing down and major tour operators have stopped featuring Gozo as a winter destination. "If it were not for Gozitan entrepreneurs who are still struggling on while the Maltese and foreign investors are moving out, we would be in a much more difficult situation. We have just had the worst winter season we can remember."

Many Gozitans in the business sector feel that Maltese decisionmakers are not sensitive to the particular needs of Gozo. They would like more Gozitan decisionmakers to be involved at a top level in the structures which are shaping Gozo's fate, structures like the Malta Tourism Authority, Gozo Channel Co., Malta Enterprise...

There is a way forward

They resent the anti-business environment created by Government, which is strangling investment and economic growth. "Our economy is in a coma. Instead of helping us revive it, government is making life more difficult for us. Red tape and persecution by government tax departments are making entrepreneurs keep back from investing.

"All we expect from governemnt is to let us work, to let us get on with our business. We want to pay taxes that are just. It is not fair that after so many years of neglect and poor governance, and because it is hard pressed becuase of the deficit and public debt, government has now turned on us and is milking us dry."

Another hotelier weighs in: "Government is sucking the blood of the citizen but without any output or positive results. Government employees such as beach cleaners are at home by 8.30 a.m. with their day done! This is not to mention the other goverment employees who do not even bother to turn up for work as they receive their cheque via their account. They do not have to show their face and nobody knows that they are government employees. Some of them are our competitors and they are at the Blue Lagoon every day taking tourists on boat trips while they should be at their workplace."

However bleak the situation is, there is a way forward for Gozo. A South African woman who visits Gozo regularly says: "Gozo tourism desperately needs a marketing campaign to target overseas clients who want what Gozo has to offer. When I tell people - either in Europe or South Africa (where I now live) - that my parents live in Gozo, the overwhelming response is 'Where's that?' Name a small Greek island, and everyone knows exactly where it is!

"Many of my friends are avid divers, in the higher income groups and are well educated, yet they would never visit Gozo as they don't know about it, but they would love it."

She has no doubt that "Gozo is a brilliant place with beautiful scenery, lots of history and culture, is relatively clean compared with other destinations, has excellent restaurants and hotels which charge reasonable prices and is one of the best swimming, snorkelling and dive sites in the world.

"Gozo needs to be marketed properly to people who would appreciate the island, such as dive clubs, marine biology, archaeology, history and other departments of universities, advertisements and/or editorial pieces should go into quality newspapers and magazines the world over, film, TV and advert producers worldwide could be approached and so on. I have hardly ever seen Gozo promoted anywhere - except on the side of London buses where it is 'Malta and Gozo'. Gozo is a world-class destination in its own right and should be given the attention it deserves."