Year after year it is pledged that Gozo needs to be sold to our source markets as a separate and distinct destination to Malta for it to be able to maximise its unique potential and to exploit to the fullest possible extent its distinct product

Doubtlessly, Gozo’s rurality makes it possible to offer visitors a diverse experience that gives it a competitive edge over the mother Island which has, through overdevelopment, lost much of the simplicity and genuineness of Gozo.

But what is the tourism situation of Gozo compared to Malta? Since 2007, Malta, in terms of visitor numbers, has made important progress. According to NSO data, total tourist departures in 2007 stood at 1,243,510. By the end of 2011 the 1.4 million tourist arrival threshold was achieved. I can agree to disagree with my counterpart that the average length of stay in Malta is falling, that tourist expenditure per capita is falling, and that, on a more serious note, the operators’ gross operating profit has not yet recuperated and is still far from reaching 2007 levels because of higher operating costs, a fact which the MHRA considers is a potential threat to the long-term sustainability of the industry.

But let’s stick to visitor numbers.

Regrettably Malta’s progress was not reflected in Gozo which is still very much in recession with very poor progress registered in terms of visitor numbers. By the end of 2011 there were more or less 33,000 visitors to Gozo which is far less than the figures registered in 2008, when more than 38,000 tourists visited the sister island, and also significantly less than the levels reached in 2004, which means that Gozo was performing far better seven years ago than it is today. I would describe these results as dismal.

Expressing oneself negatively about these results is not a show of disrespect to the operators who I know work very hard for the benefit of their industry as I have been amply shown to understand by the Gozo Tourism Association that had kindly organised for me a tour around the island for which I am ever so grateful. And they are certainly not to blame for this sorry situation.

Expressing the facts as they are is all about being realistic and truthful to the Gozitan industry. Expressing oneself otherwise in the face of NSO data is like inviting the operators to bury their heads in the sand like the ostrich loves doing to fool itself.

The one million dollar question is - why isn’t Gozo experiencing healthy rises in visitor numbers like Malta? To be able to give a satisfactory explanation one must first understand why visitor numbers significantly increased in Malta. There can be no doubt that there is an obvious correlation between the rise in visitor numbers in Malta and the arrival of low cost carriers (LCCs) in Malta sometime in 2006.

Indeed, 2005 was the last full year that LCCs were not yet flying to Malta. Total visitor numbers since 2006 shot up by more than 17% to over 1.4 million with visitor nights increasing significantly in Malta. Another important development was the establishment of a base in Malta by Ryanair in 2010 which led to the opening of a number of new routes in Italy and which increased visitor flows from Italy so significantly that Italy has become Malta’s second most important source market after the UK at least till the end of 2011.

But there is one characteristic of the profile of an LCC passenger that is detrimental to Malta and worse still for Gozo. He is prolific in taking very short holidays, so much so that the average length of stay decreased by a substantial 1.2 nights, from 9.5 nights in 2005 to 8.3 nights in 2011. Now, if one had to net from these figures those tourists who preferred a tour-operated package holiday (and who normally spend more time in Malta than LCC passengers do), the average length of stay would turn out to be far shorter. One only needs a cursory glance at the timetables of LCC flights to notice that their schedule is tailor-made to accommodate a quick four to five day break.

So there is hardly enough time for visitors flying LCCs to Malta to spend at least one night in a Gozo hotel or a self-catering establishment, let alone more. They may have enough time to spend a full day in Gozo as day-trippers. But they leave little value added in Gozo, are not considered as tourists for the sake of Gozo tourist arrival data (in much the same way that cruise liner passengers are not included in tourist arrival data for Malta), so are of no interest to hotel operators as they do not spend any nights in their hotels.

The bottom line is that the healthy increases in visitor numbers in Malta, brought about by the arrival of LCCs in 2006, and more significantly the leaps forward brought about by the establishment of a Ryanair base in Malta in 2010, cannot produce the same results in Gozo for obvious reasons of problems of accessibility. Because of the lack of any benefits to Gozo from LCC inflows to Malta, the Gozitan tourism industry remains heavily reliant on tour operated business, which unfortunately is also in global decline. To compound further the industry’s woes Gozo has also lost its helilink which used to serve as a mitigating factor to its unique problem of accessibility called ‘il-fliegu’ (the channel).

Trying to sell Gozo as a distinct and separate destination is like flogging a dead horse unless, its problem of accessibility is seriously challenged.

Dr Gulia is the Opposition’s Main Spokesman for Tourism and Air Malta