Following the release of the collective accommodation statistics compiled by the National Office of Statistics for June this year, the Gozo Tourism Association said that it had noted the decrease in tourist arrivals and bednights during June.

The GTA stated that these decreases should be looked into and taken seriously, since this is the second consecutive month that the Gozitan hotels registered a decrease, after double digit growths in the preceding winter 2016 months.

"The decreases of 4.5% in arrivals and 10.5% in bednights have to be analysed objectively in order to have a more comprehensible picture of the tourism scenario on Gozo."

The Association pointed out that "it is of utmost importance to state that the aforementioned statistics relate to the collective accommodation in Gozo, which includes the nine hotels, guesthouses, and tourist villages, representing just over 2000 beds or 28% of the licensed beds in Gozo."

"These same statistics do not cover the non-collective accommodation that includes mostly, the farmhouses and the apartments. This accommodation segment groups approximately 5000 licensed beds in Gozo or 72% of the island's total bedstock."

"There are several reasons which need to be taken into consideration when faced with these statistics," The GTA said that, "on analysing further the tourist bednights, there are indications of changes in the tourism accommodation sector."

"It is evident that lately there has been a shift from the collective accommodation to the non-collective accommodation. This was corroborated by various indicators."

The main accommodation providers in the self-catering sector confirmed that they registered better occupancies both in May and in June when compared to same period of last year, said the GTA.

"The decreases in the collective accommodation were higher in lower categories i.e. the three star hotels, guesthouses, and tourist villages. These two categories registered a decrease of 17% and 15% respectively."

The GTA said that at the present time there are 60 accommodation units in Gozo operating under the Bed & Breakfast trade name. "Since this type of accommodation property falls under the non-collective accommodation, these units are not obliged to furnish NSO with their occupancies. A rough calculation of these units will add up to approx. 360 more beds in direct competition with the hotels sector."

"Furthermore one cannot exclude to mention those properties that are not licensed, yet are featured and bookable on several booking engines. These are also increasing the bed supply on Gozo, while offering unfair competition to the licensed accommodation units," said the GTA.

In the circumstances the Gozo Tourism Association said that it calls for a concentrated effort to tackle the issues mentioned above. "In this respect in its Budget 2017 proposals the Gozo Tourism Association will be suggesting measures to strengthen the Gozitan Hotels sector, and if taken on board, these measures will entice the Hotel owners to invest in the upgrading and refurbishment of their accommodation offer."

The Gozo Tourism Association recommended "that the time has come to have a more comprehensive Gozitan accommodation data that covers and includes all type of units. Only through these statistics one can really measure the Gozitan tourism achievements or otherwise."

The Gozo Tourism Association augured that all those involved in the tourist industry, "persist in doing their utmost to continue enhancing better prospects in the Gozitan tourism industry."

The Gozo Tourism Association concluded by saying that it believes that "more has to be done by all stakeholders involved in order to maintain the numbers registered during these last years."

Photograph by Alain Salvary

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