Intervju med fem personer i Gozo på Malta
Avis Nytid (2013)
Luis, 43 years
Tourist guide
Is a disaster! We’re all depressed. Our season is getting shorter. 20 years ago when we started doing this, the season was 6, if lucky, 7 month. There were many more scooba divers…. before we had tourist that came to the island every year, but it does not happen any more. The price of fuel has also increased but we cannot increase the prices of our services. We don’t profit. So everything you hear from the news is not true. They say that in Gozo there is a lot of fishing, a lot of farming, a lot of this or that…But it is not true, we live from tourism!
John, 45 years
Blacksmith artisan
The main industry in Gozo is tourism and today the season is shorter. It is mid July to the end of August, but it used to be from May till October. I have been running this shop for thirteen years, before people bought if there was something they liked, but today people stand and consider for long time before they buy something. There are fewer tourists as well and the prices of metal sheets have triple in ten years contrary to the prices of the good, which are mostly the same as they were ten years ago. Due to EU funds we are able to rebuild the roads. This is one of the reasons unemployment is fairly low, at 6 %. All together we survive is not all that bad, but we don’t know about the future.
Chantal, 16 years
Waitress
Money is tighter today. You have to save more, be careful. But I don’t think that the crisis in Europe has had a huge impact in Gozo as it has been in other countries in the EU. We still have tourists!
Marica, 18 years
Waitress
I don’t think that the European recession has affected us much. We have more economic growth than EU. There are also fewer people dependent on social benefit. Personally, I don’t perceive the EU crisis to be severe for us. People don’t move to Australia as they did in the past. I for example I’ll start studying economics at the University of Malta and I am hopeful that I can get a relevant job when I finish my studies.
Marquita, 37 years
Mother of three, secondary school teacher and restaurant owner
The main industry of Malta is tourism, so we have been indeed affected by the EU recession, specially the last two years. People come to Gozo on a tighter budget and are very careful using money. People even bring their own water to the restaurant to avoid buying it here. The season has also become much shorter than before. But it is not only the tourism sector that has been affected by the recession. I, with my salary as a teacher, could never manage to maintain my family. The price of fuel has increased and along with it the price of food, school uniforms, all. But in spite of the situation we remains hopeful!
