Nearly half of respondents in a Gozo Tourism Association survey termed the performance of their establishments in the second quarter this year as "bad".

The GTA survey was carried out among the association's members, including hotels, self catering accommodation establishments, restaurants, the diving sector, transport services, tourist attractions as well as DMCs and tour agencies.

Earlier this month, the NSO had reported that more people and cars crossed the Gozo channel between April and June when compared to the same period last year. Commuters increased by 3.9 per cent to almost one million and the number of vehicles increased by 2.2 per cent to 285,641, the National Statistics Office said.

The Gozo Tourism Association said that 48 per cent of respondents termed the performance of their establishments as "bad" in the second quarter while 30 per cent said it was "fair".

Some two per cent of respondents said performance was "very good", while the remaining 20 per cent stated that their business was "good".

When asked how the business performed during the second quarter of 2011 when compared to the second quarter of 2010, 62 per cent classified their business performance as less than last year's, while 28 per cent said it was on the same footing. Twelve per cent declared that the going for April to June was "better" than in the same period last year.

Replying about the performance of the domestic market, 45.7 per cent of operators rated the period as "bad" while more than a third, 34.8 per cent, said it was "fair". The domestic market performance was classified as "good" by 19.6 per cent, but none said it was "very good".

Asked about profitability, 60 per cent of survey respondents stated this was "bad", 30 per cent declared it was "fair", while 10 per cent answered that it was "good".