43% of Gozitan tourism businesses saw improvement from last year

42.8% of Gozitan tourism businesses said that their business between July and September 2014 improved when compared to the same quarter of 2013. Another 42.8% said that their performance this year was on the same footing of 2013, while 14.4% classified their business performance as less than last year’s.

This is according to a quarterly survey carried out by the Gozo Tourism Association amongst Gozitan hotels, self-catering accommodation establishments, restaurants, diving schools, transport services, tourist attractions, destination management companies and tour agencies.

7.1% of respondents rated the performance of their businesses during the third quarter under question as ‘bad’, 17.8% rated it as ‘fair’, 42.8% rated is as ‘good’ while 32.2% rated it as ‘very good’.

When asked what main factors are limiting their business performance, 35.7% declared it as operating costs, 25% declared it as shortage of employees, 25% as insufficient demand by clients, 14.2% as administrative bureaucracy, and 10.7% as financial costs.

The majority of the respondents rated the performance of the Gozitan domestic market positively, 50% rating it as ‘fair’, 35.7% rating it as ‘good’, and 10.7% rating it as ‘very good’.

75% of respondents rated the effect of the domestic market on their business during the third quarter of 2014 as being on an equal footing to the third quarter of 2013, 14.3% said that it had a better effect, while 10.7% rated it as having had a worse effect,

When asked about the foreign market’s effect on this quarter’s performance, 10% of participants rated the business performance as ‘bad’, while 14.3% declared their establishments’ performance as ‘fair’.  The foreign market performance was classified as ‘good’ by 57.1% while 17.9% of respondents stated that it was ‘very good’.

The Gozitan tourism establishments were also asked to rate the effect on their business by the foreign market during the third quarter of 2014, when compared to first quarter of 2013. Almost 35.7% stated that the effect was on an ‘equal footing’, while 46.5% rated the effect of the foreign market on their performance as ‘better than that for 2013’. On the other hand 17.8% termed the effect of the foreign market as ‘less than same quarter of 2013’.

The Gozo Tourism Association members were also asked to assess the revenue generated during the period January to September 2014. 42.8% declared that it was ‘good’, 21.4% declared that it was ‘very good’, 28.5% declared that it was ‘fair’ and 7.2% stated that it was ‘bad’.  

When asked to rate the revenue generated during the nine months of 2014, when compared to the same period of 2013, 35.7% stated that the effect was on an ‘equal footing’, while 50% stated that their performance was ‘better than that for 2013’. On the other hand 14.2% termed the business generated as ‘less than same period of 2013’.