More Maltese than tourists went to Gozo for a holiday last year, but foreigners are still the main contributors to the sister island’s economy, according to the Gozo Tourism Association.
GTA president Joe Muscat on Monday told the Times of Malta that even though the number of Maltese visitors to Gozo increased last year, outstripping foreigners by two per cent, it was still non-Maltese who left the greatest economic impact.
“When Maltese come over, they come for a weekend break, but foreigners stay for more than five nights on average. That means they spend more on accommodation, restaurants, taxis and so on,” Mr Muscat said.
Mr Muscat was reacting to figures released recently by the National Statistics Office which found that in 2017, locals who had visited either of Malta’s two sister islands, Gozo and Comino, accounted for 52.4 per cent of all those who spent at least a night there. However, the NSO found that foreign tourists stayed much longer – an average of 9.2 nights, compared with just 2.8 for the Maltese holidaymakers.
In all, only 92,295 of the country’s total 2.3 million tourists went solely to Gozo or Comino.
Only 92,295 of 2.3 million went solely to Gozo or Comino in 2017
This was not to say that the Maltese were not having a positive impact on the Gozitan economy. According to the NSO, holidaymakers from Malta spent an estimated €40 million in Gozo last year, 8.9 per cent more when compared to 2016.
Mr Muscat said the “success” that Gozo’s tourism sector was experiencing was not a fluke.
“This has been a gradual buildup. There has been an effort by the tourism authorities to promote Gozo as a destination, and it appears as though we are starting to see the fruit of these efforts now,” he said.
Mr Muscat also pointed to changing patterns in the types of accommodation visitors to Gozo were opting for, highlighting that it was important to keep tabs on the developments in the tourism market.
While new types of accommodation, such as bed and breakfast stays or boutique hotels were on the rise, it was collective accommodation that was still taking up a large chunk of the market.
“And, of course, we can’t forget the phenomenon of sites like [accommodation booking service] Airbnb,” he added.
According to the National Statistics Office, the Maltese who stayed in collective accommodation increased by 35.6 per cent in just one year.
The residents of Gozo who had travelled to Malta specifically for a holiday, on the other hand, amounted to 23,924, which was an increase of 32 per cent when compared to 2016.