Tourism Authority to install webcam to monitor Azure Window

The Malta Tourism Authority will install a webcam to monitor the Azure Window in Gozo, as part of an awareness campaign aimed at stopping people from walking on top of the slowly crumbling structure.

They will also improve the signage on the site at Dwejra, add information on its website and on other social media, and distribute information flyers on the Gozo Channel, ferries, coaches, and rental cars. Trade operators on the MTA’s database will receive an e-mail from the authority, asking for their support in informing visitors to the Azure Window.

The campaign will be launched in collaboration with the Gozo Tourism Association, Nature Trust Malta, and the Dwejra Committee.

“Visitors to the site feel compelled to walk across the natural bridge, perhaps to take a look from the other side or to get an ‘I Was There’ souvenir photo. The corrosion caused by one person walking over the rocks of the Azure Window is infinitely small. But this simple action, multiplied by hundreds of thousands of times in a year, and millions of times over a longer period, might leave a mark on the fragile surface,” the MTA said in a statement.

The Azure Window’s location, right at the edge of the Dwejra cliffs, leaves it totally exposed to the elements, especially the rough sea which beats upon it incessantly, particularly in winter. Geologists and the MTA believe that it is only a matter of time before the entire rock formation collapses.