Maltese save the day but there’ll be no party mood
Gozo has started to see some hotel and apartment cancellations over the last few days as the island gears up for a “different” Santa Marija weekend due to the pandemic.
The Gozo Tourism Association (GTA) says more cancellations are expected in the coming days, as countries continue to ‘blacklist’ Malta.
Its CEO, Joe Muscat, said cancellations are also coming in from the domestic market. While still keeping the sister island busy this weekend, the Maltese are “quite conscious” of the situation, he noted.
“It will be a different Santa Marija,” he conceded, pointing to the lack of the usual foreign mix. The domestic market could only mitigate the losses and never compensate for them, he added.
The drop in tourist arrivals, he said, was being felt on beaches and everywhere else, so Gozo will not be packed this Santa Marija.
But it remained popular with the Maltese, especially now that caution about travelling has been re-instilled, following restrictions from a number of countries due to the dramatic rise in novel coronavirus cases.
The mood will not be that great, he acknowledged, referring to tourists already here who know they would have to quarantine on return to their country.