GTA welcomes Gozo incentive scheme for winter tourists

by Gozo News · July 21, 2023

GTA welcomes Gozo incentive scheme for winter tourists The launch of the Extended Stay Incentive Scheme by the Ministry for Gozo has been welcomed by the Gozo Tourism Association

In a statement, the Association said the scheme specifically addresses the seasonality element.

Over the past 25 years, concentrated efforts were deployed to establish Gozo into a year-round destination, however seasonality always remains a challenge for an island tourist destination, the Association said.

It highlighted that Gozo is still experiencing fluctuations during the year, with high numbers of foreign tourist arrivals, during the summer months, and less arrivals during the winter months.

To this end, in its Budget 2023 proposals the Gozo Tourism Association said it included a measure in the form of a scheme, aimed specifically to mitigate seasonality.

A structured scheme that brings a tri-partite partnership between the Ministry for Gozo, the Gozo Tourism Association and the interested accommodation operators in Gozo was announced this week by the Ministry for Gozo through its Directorate for Tourism and Economic Development.

The incentive aims at attracting foreign tourists that come to Gozo during the winter season between the 15th October 2023 and 15th of March 2024.

In order to benefit from this scheme, foreign visitors staying in Gozitan licensed accommodation in the aforementioned period should spend 10 nights or more.

The GTA explained that the rationale behind this is to further entice visitors to prolong their stay instead of a shorter one, thereby affording our visitors to further immerse into the experience that Gozo has to offer.

“This will also entail that visitors will be able to disperse more and discover the diversity of the tourism product, serving as a multiplier effect on the local economy in general. Such a scheme will also support an increase in bed nights in Gozo, during the low season,” it said.

The GTA added that this scheme also enabled an additional marketing opportunity to stakeholders alike, giving further exposure of the island including its touristic niches as this will be key to attracting visitors to such a prolonged stay.

The GTA concluded by saying that it believes that this synergised effort between the Directorate for Tourism and Economic Development within the Ministry for Gozo and the Gozo Tourism Association will further mitigate seasonality in Gozo.