Nearly half of Gozo’s tourism businesses had a “bad” first quarter, according to a survey published yesterday.

Just over a third described the first three months of the year as “fair” while 11 per cent stated that their performance was “good” and only 4.5 per cent qualified it as “very good”.

Figures for the Easter period, which fell outside the first three months, were somewhat better, with marginally more “good” responses than “bad”.

The survey was conducted among members of the Gozo Tourism Association and included hotels, self-catering establishments, restaurants, diving centres, transport services, tourist attractions, as well as destination management companies and tour agencies.

Asked how their business performed during the first quarter when compared to the same period last year, just over half classified it as below the 2010 level, while just under a third declared that it was on an equal footing. Almost 16 per cent said things were better than the January-to-March 2010 period.

The survey also looked at operations in the Easter period, which is generally known to be good for Gozitan tourism.

This year’s performance was rated as bad by 27.9 per cent, while more than a third, 34.9 per cent, described their establishments’ performance as fair. The Easter performance was classified as “good” by 30.2 per cent, while only seven per cent said it was “very good”.

Asked to compare their Easter business performance to last year’s, 36.4 per cent said they performed on an equal footing while 18.2 per cent rated it as better.

On the other hand, 45.5 per cent said their establishment’s performance was below that of Easter 2010.

The GTA intends to hold such surveys on a quarterly basis to get periodical snapshots of prevailing trends.