Our commitment: <i>Lejlet Lapsi</i> to be held every year

Prosit, grazzi u ergghu ghamluha s-sena d-diehla. Well done, thank you and let's have a repeat next year. This was the verdict of many of the people we met during our tour of the events during Lejlet Lapsi - Notte Gozitana.

It is befitting to convey the first two words to all those who worked relentlessly to ensure a successful event. Well done and thank you for your sterling work. Such large-scale public events require a tremendous amount of preparation and attention to detail. We appreciate that such an activity invariably means sleepless nights for the people in charge who have to face obvious and not so obvious challenges. Our heartfelt appreciation goes to those who dealt with these tasks effectively and efficiently.

We also feel it is our duty to thank the transport operators, the Police Force, the Civil Protection Department personnel and medical personnel for the efficient and professional way they went about executing their duties.

Even though a full analysis of the event still needs to be made, we can safely state that the activity has managed to achieve its objectives. Our first objective was to create a demand for accommodation over a weekend that is traditionally low in bookings. With full occupancy in hotels and a very high demand for farmhouses and apartments, we can safely state that this objective was achieved.

Our second objective was to generate a high influx of day trippers. The figures for the ferry-crossing on Saturday again show that over 20,000 Maltese persons spent their Saturday in Gozo.

It is interesting to observe that between January 1 and May 20, we have had more than 56,000 passengers and over 17,500 cars coming to Gozo over and above what we had in the same period last year.

These increases are welcome and prove that the government's strategy to treat Gozo as a destination in its own right is working. The third aim was to create an event that would appeal to families and the older generation. Going through the streets of Victoria we were pleased to note families enjoying themselves in a safe, car-free environment.

The fourth aim was to showcase the hidden charms of Gozo, its people and artists to a wide audience. This again was achieved as thousands of people discovered the beauties of Gozo as they walked through the narrow streets of Victoria and the Citadella or as they toured the many buildings that were welcoming visitors during the event.

This was yet another successful initiative to promote internal tourism to Gozo. In the National Tourism Plan, we stated our intention to deliver initiatives that will help create additional business for tourism operators in Gozo. We made this pledge because we appreciate the extra challenge these operators face especially in the winter months. The initiatives taken so far, such as Lejlet Lapsi, have managed to register a substantial increase in traffic and business to Gozo.

Our promise is to continue in our efforts, to further strengthen our cooperation with the tourism stakeholders in order to ensure a sustainable future for this industry in Gozo.

It is our intention to make this event a regular feature of our annual calendar of events. With this in mind, we look forward to receive your comments on how the event can be improved.

We value your opinion because the ultimate measure of success for such events is the level of participation and satisfaction.

As was the case with the previous two Notte events, the Malta Tourism Authority will be running a survey to gather information that will be used when planning future events.

Mill-gdid grazzi. Once again our heartfelt thanks. It was particularly satisfying to synergise the best our two ministries can offer in order to achieve the excellent results that have been acknowledged by one and all. It is now our commitment to ensure that Lejlet Lapsi is not only held every year but that in particular, it becomes part of the Gozo product and calendar.

Ms Debono is Minister for Gozo.

Dr Zammit Dimech is Minister for Tourism and Culture.

Francis Zammit Dimech, Giovanna Debono