It’s been several years since my last holiday in Gozo.

The first reason for this is that during my last few visits there, I no longer felt that I was taking a break. Gozo progressively became too much like Malta, and it stopped giving me the feeling that I was “away”.

It lost the charm it had on me. For many years, the sister island was a favourite spot for a few days of relaxation. It started with my family when I was a child, and continued in my teenage years when, together with my friends, we used to spend weekends (and sometimes a whole week) of freedom from home.

I remember we used to set up tents at the far end of Xlendi, spending days in the water and evenings sharing jokes around a campfire. Later, when we started earning some money, we used to rent apartments and enjoyed falling into bed at dawn without having to bother explaining anything to worried parents.

The years rolled by and each time I visited I found myself realising that Gozo was shedding more and more of its charisma, as it had simply been transformed into another Malta. It was no longer different.

This is why I believe that the construction of an underwater tunnel or a bridge – convenient as it may be for Gozitans to travel to and from their home to the mainland – will only serve to drastically reduce even further the attractiveness and uniqueness of Gozo.

A permanent link will only lead to Gozo losing what little distinction it still enjoys when it is compared to Malta and I hope that the plans are put aside – for Gozo’s sake, not mine.

The second reason – and this is more crucial than the first – is that a holiday in Gozo became increasingly more expensive as time went by, and spending so much money on a holiday at the end of which I felt I had not taken one led me to conclude that it was no longer worth it.

Renting a farmhouse, an apartment or hotel rooms in Gozo became too costly, as prices were pushed up each season. Gozitans take no haggling: they adopt a take-it-or-leave-it attitude that shows a kind of greediness which might end up destroying their business in the long term. It was not like this not so long ago.

Apart from the accommodation costs, the day-to-day living, which included eating in restaurants, also went up a few notches in terms of cost. The more Maltese began to spend holidays in Gozo, the more the prices went up, as the Gozitans saw a way by which they could do business.

I do not believe Maltese patrons are given menus with prices that are higher than those offered to Gozitans; I never came across this practice, although I’ve heard about it many times. But I do believe that a meal in a Gozitan restaurant is more expensive than a similar meal in a restaurant in Malta.

I say this with a heavy heart but with goodwill, as my intention is for this article to serve as an eye-opener to Gozitan entrepreneurs who are taking advantage of their Maltese customers. Many Gozitan businessmen complain that Gozo’s double insularity is a disadvantage, that the high season in Gozo is short and that they have to make a living in those few months when the going is good.

Fair enough, one could say, but they may not realise that they are shooting themselves in the foot. Sooner or later, this may backfire.

You may ask how I know all this if I have not visited Gozo for years. It’s a good question, and the answer is simple. A few weeks ago I thought I’d give Gozo another chance. I tried to book a holiday there but it soon became clear that things have not changed. If anything, they have become worse. The prices I was quoted for a weekend’s accommodation were exorbitant and non-negotiable. Added to the money I would have spent on the ferry crossing and the restaurants – a quick look on websites gave me a very good idea of what the price range is – the cost of that holiday in Gozo was too high.

It’s not that I could not afford it; it’s that I was not going to get good value for the money I was going to spend – simply because I could spend the same amount of money on a longer holiday abroad.

And so instead of going to Gozo, I used the same amount of money to go to Tuscany for six days (not a weekend). And, given the choice between travelling to a European city and going to Gozo – for the same price – I will always choose a European city because I am then living a new experience in a different country, and not just taking a 20-minute boat ride to a second, more expensive, Malta.

This is the whole point I am trying to make. With the advent of low-cost carriers, it has become more worthwhile and certainly more cost-effective to fly out of Malta than to cross the channel to Gozo.

Low-cost air tickets are sometimes cheaper than the cost of the ferry ticket, and you can then easily find accommodation in good quality hotels located in the centre of cities that are less expensive than accommodation in Gozo.

Many Maltese are now opting to do as I did, choosing a cheaper holiday in one of the destinations reached by low-cost carriers rather than going to Gozo. (And this is something that Air Malta should take note of as well, as it seeks to restructure itself to become sustainable).

It may not happen today, tomorrow or next week, but the Gozitan economy can eventually collapse if more and more people realise that it is cheaper to go abroad than to spend the same amount of time on holiday in Gozo.

Then it could be too late to reverse the trend.

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