The long protracted development of the ferry terminals in Mgarr and Cirkewwa really needs to be completed, and sooner rather than later.

The provisional organisation of Cirkewwa is not that bad considering the circumstances and it is quite easy to manoeuvre through, but Mgarr in Gozo is quite simply a disorganised mess. This project has been going on for years now, what with plans drafted, then scrapped and re-drafted, with the end result being absolute chaos. With all the confusion, Gozo Channel Company must be doing miracles to provide its service.

Some might say that it is winter and we can afford to wait a little longer in the shoulder months while the work slows down for this time of the year. But there is a two-pronged answer to that.

We have been saying that Malta and Gozo’s weakness in tourism is the shoulder months and, quite simply, if Gozo’s first stop remains in that state, it will not attract tourists. The second reason why we cannot allow work to slow down in the winter is that the project will fall even further behind and soon it will be summer again and more people will start visiting the sister island.

While arriving in Gozo may still be a rather smooth affair, because it is a roll-on-roll-off ferry, departing from Mgarr is, to say the least, a nightmare. For starters, one has to queue on the inside lane of the Mgarr road, which is dangerous and, quite honestly, inadequate for the amount of traffic, especially at peak hours. Secondly, people are then directed down a side road, more or less onto the fisherman’s quay area. By this point, especially in the dark, motorists get confused.

In fact, a recent visitor to Gozo remarked that he was sitting in the queue in his car when he saw the ferry start taking in cars. There are policemen at the roundabout who direct the traffic. This person panicked as none of the other cars in the queue had people waiting in them and he opted to drive towards the police who in turn simply waved him through. He proceeded to drive around onto the side of the quay where he spotted another queue and parked his car in the line.

The problem was that this was no queue, but simply Gozitans picking up people who had crossed over from Malta. Almost totally exasperated by this point, the motorist drove round to the Gozo Channel attendant by the ship, where he was confronted by a policeman who told him he should not have jumped the queue.

This is only just one example of what is taking place at Mgarr Harbour, and we must say that in this day and age, such a state of affairs there is unacceptable.

We simply cannot afford to keep the old mentality that anything goes, particularly where foreigners are concerned. We Maltese are quite tolerant of our own shortcomings – although this is changing too – but if even we are moaning about the state of affairs, what would tourists from more developed countries think of the way we do things?

We can assure you, something like that is not quaint, but simply infuriating, especially to foreign travellers who are used to more organised systems of transport in their own country and in others that they have visited. We understand that the plans of the project changed, but at the very least, the authorities should get their act together and make sure that in the meantime, a system that actually works smoothly should be put into place.

More importantly, the work at both terminals must be stepped up and finished as quickly as possible. It is only by doing this that we can make Gozo more attractive, to locals and tourists alike.