9 - 15 August 2001

Low hotel room occupancy levels in Gozo for first 6 months of 2001

by Ivan Brincat

Occupancy levels in hotels and guest houses in Gozo by foreigners in the first six months of 2001 only reached 15.88 per cent. The figures increase to 26.29 per cent when one takes into consideration the number of Maltese who visit Gozo for weekend breaks, according to figures obtained by The Malta Business Weekly.
These statistics do not give a rosy picture of the different classes of hotels in Gozo even though they are the same if not slightly better than the figures for the corresponding period in 2000.
These statistics are based on information supplied by the
management of hotels and guest houses.
The figures may be considered positive because they show a slight increase in business over 2000 despite the fact that the number of German tourists brought to Malta by Frosch Touristik decreased.
Between January and March there were 4,022 foreign visitors for an occupancy level of 12.57 per cent. The number of Maltese visitors during the same period was 8,831 giving a percentage occupancy of 10.82 per cent. While on average, Maltese spent two nights in Gozo, foreigners stayed for an average of four or five nights.
While the rate of occupancy for locals has remained constant at
nearly 10 per cent, the period between April and June proved to be better vis-à-vis foreign visitors with the occupancy rates going up to 31.77 per cent or 41.77 per cent if the figure included locals.
Between January and June,
Gozitan hotel operators reported that they had 112,839 bed nights. Of these 35,030 were locals. The number of visitors during this period amounted to 17,814 locals and 18,407 foreigners, confirming the importance of local tourism to the Gozitan
economy.
During the same period last year, the number of locals in Gozo was reported to have been 14,509 while foreigners totalled 14,938 giving occupancy rates of 9.19 per cent and 15.75 per cent respectively. The total occupancy rate between January and June 2000 was 24.93 per cent compared to this year’s 26.29 per cent.
The hotels which have fared best this year were the five-star hotels between January and June followed closely by the four-star category. They not only had more foreigners and locals but also reported more bed nights.