The Gozo Tourism Association has said that it “fully understands” the necessity for the new restrictive measures as announced yesterday by the government as the daily numbers of covid-19 cases are unsustainable.”
In a statement, the Association stressed that the new measures announced yesterday and “especially the restrictions on travelling between Malta and Gozo, will obviously impact negatively on Gozo’s domestic tourism.”
It also pointed out that “it goes without saying that these measures will put on more burden on the touristic sector which up to now has been operating under economic difficulties.”
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Gozo Tourism Association said that it has always stressed the “importance of continued domestic demand to support and mitigate the loss in foreign arrivals.”
“With these latest restrictions in order to curb down the spread of Covid-19, the domestic market is once again going to be absent for the coming four weeks,” the GTA said. However, it acknowledged that the numbers are “disturbing and therefore such restrictions were inevitable.”
“The Gozitan tourism sector is known for its resilience, and the Gozo Tourism Association genuinely hopes that these measures will contain and bring the present situation under control,” it said.
The Association went on to say that it hopes that by the “opening of the new vaccination centre in Victoria in the coming days, the roll out of the vaccine for the Gozitan population is carried out at the shortest time possible.”
It concluded by saying that “only that way, by reaching the herd immunity milestone, and by controlling the numbers of Covid-19 infections will Gozo and Malta effectively compete in the global tourism market, with competing destinations already using their low numbers as a marketing tool.”