This Santa Marija weekend should finally see tourism in Gozo pick up slightly but the situation is not as rosy as it was in the past few years - some hotels are expecting August bookings to drop by up to 20 per cent.
According to a survey by the Gozo Tourism Association, to be released in the coming days, August will see a "substantial drop" compared to the past two years, which is consistent with the drop in arrivals seen in the first part of the year.
Last year, association secretary Joe Muscat said tourism during Santa Marija weekend was "saturated" and instead the government should step up promotion in the shoulder months.
"This weekend will be busy because it is always busy, but it's not like last year. This time, some hotels are fully booked but others are not," he said.
He cited the global financial crisis as one of the main factors that has led to a drop in tourism from the core foreign markets such as the UK and Germany, but other factors also had an impact.
"When Malta sneezes, Gozo catches a cold. So if the tourism situation is bad in Malta, it's worse in Gozo."
The number of Maltese visitors had declined partly because of the swine flu scare but also because of competition from other Mediterranean destinations providing cheap holidays.
"If a Maltese family used to come to Gozo for four weekends in a year, this time they will only come for two.
"Swine flu affected us because for some reason we got more attention in news bulettins than other places. But we also have a lot of competition from cheap destinations like Cyprus, Tunisia, Egypt and Corfu.
"Sometimes it works out cheaper to take one of those offers than to spend some time in Gozo, even though the island is not an expensive destination," he explained.
Another possible reason was that a number of Maltese were experiencing job difficulties such as unemployment, no overtime and shortened working weeks, which meant they could afford fewer luxuries.
He said many hotels, which usually reserved space in summer for international booking agents, were now opening up as much as possible to the Maltese. This, he said, alleviated the problem of the drop in foreign tourists.
Between January and May arrivals went down by 15 per cent while bed nights slipped by 20 per cent, he added.
"This is going to be a very tough year. It's too early to predict what will happen next year. We're hoping the positive push we're seeing this week will somehow continue. But then again, we'll have to wait and see."