The cruise liner terminal and yacht marina in Gozo which were promised in the Labour electoral programme and in the budget speech three years ago, will be built “at the opportune time”, Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said in Parliament this evening.

He was answering questions by Anthony Agius Declis (PL), and Nationalist MPs Chris Said and Ċensu Galea. The projects were not mentioned in the last two Budget speeches. 

The minister said said that notwithstanding the absence of the cruise liner terminal, the number of cruise liner calls to Gozo during the first six months of the year was nine, two more that the corresponding period last year.  

During the period between January and September, the cruise liners that visited Gozo carried more than 5,200 passengers – an increase of more than 76 per cent in the same period of 2012, the last full year of a PN administration.

Dr Zammit Lewis said 2015 was the best year enjoyed by Gozo in this industry when 18 port calls were made, with 9,800 passengers on board – three times as much as that registered in 2012 and 14 times higher than 2014.

Dr Said asked when and where the terminal would be built and how many companies had answered the call for tenders. Dr Zammit Lewis replied by saying the project would take less time than the building of the Ċirkewwa terminal by PN administrations, adding that things were expected to start moving next summer.

There was controversy in May last year when plans for the project in quarry by the sea, close to Ħondoq ir-Rummien in Qala, Gozo, were revealed. 

The plans  were mistakenly unveiled by the Milan studio of Chapman Taylor, which said on its website it was selected to design the 220,000 square metre coastline construction development in Qala.