The National Statistics Office (NSO), published the Regional Tourism Demand 2018 – 2020.
As expected the following could be noted: (i) the significant drop in inbound tourism i.e. foreign tourists coming over to Gozo (this applied to the main island of Malta as well); and (ii) the significant increase in domestic tourism. The latter in 2020 stood at 348,489 domestic tourists to Gozo, an increase of 61.9% over 2019. This trend was expected, and may have been induced by various factors including the vouchers given by the Government, and the restrictions in travel abroad, though Gozo in this case was also impacted due to the restrictions on travel between the two islands for a certain period. However, it may be concluded that Gozo in this case provided a safer and more practical destination for residents on the main island of Malta.
However, it is important to note that an important component was induced by those domestic tourists in ‘non-rented accommodation’ i.e. those who stayed in their own accommodation, which aligns itself with the fact that more Maltese residents are buying their holiday accommodation here in Gozo, and also the fact that during the pandemic, and with an increasing rate of people who could telework, many people may have opted to stay in Gozo during the pandemic. In fact domestic tourists who stayed in non-rented accommodation experienced an increase of 107.4% over 2019.
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