Malta with highest occupancy rates among EU members

Maltese hotels had the best occupancy rates across the 25 EU member states in the three months to September last year.

According to statistics issued by Eurostat, the EU's statistical arm, Maltese hotels and similar establishments reported an average occupancy rate of 74.9 per cent in July 2004, 84.4 per cent in August and 67.8 per cent in September.

The country with the next best hotel occupancy rates was Cyprus with 71 per cent, 81 per cent and 67.5 per cent occupancy rates in July, August and September 2004.

For the month of June the picture is slightly different with France topping the hotel occupancy rates list at 63.3 per cent. Maltese hotels come third with 59.6 per cent occupancy following Cyprus at 61.4 per cent.

A comparison of last year's hotel performances with those of the previous year shows that countries considered as direct competitors to Malta all suffered a decline in hotel occupancy rates. Although comparable figures for Malta were not made available, significant decreases in occupancy rates were noticed in Italy (- 8.3 per cent in August; - five per cent in September), Greece (- three per cent in August; - four per cent in September) and Cyprus (- 2.6 per cent in August; - 0.5 per cent in September).

The statistics do not give any indication of the North African markets, like Tunisia, which are also considered to be among Malta's direct competitors.

Eurostat commented that in most of the countries, August was the peak month for tourism when the best occupancy rates are recorded, except for Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, where the peak month is July while in Germany and France September is the peak month.

The EU's statistical office said that in terms of guest flows and occupancy rates of hotels and similar establishments, tourism in most of the EU countries experienced an increase in the summer season of 2004, compared to the same period in 2003.

The highest increase in total nights spent in hotels and similar establishments in the EU countries were in Poland (+31 per cent), followed by Estonia (+29.4 per cent) and Latvia (+19.6 per cent).

Total nights spent decreased most in the UK (- 9.4 per cent) and in Slovakia (- 6.9 per cent).