Fewer beds push occupancy rate up

There was a drop of 6.4 per cent in the supply of bed-places in May, from 41,269 in May 2004 to 38,611 this year, and consequently the overall occupancy rate rose by 3.5 percentage points to 57.3 per cent, the National Statistics Office said.

The highest occupancy rate was recorded in the four-star hotel accommodation category at 71.7 per cent followed by the five-star hotel category at 54.8 per cent.

Total nights spent in Malta and Gozo diminished by 0.1 per cent when compared to the same month in 2004, while the average nights spent increased from 6.1 in May last year to 6.4 nights in May 2005.

Compared to May 2004, nights spent by non-residents in Malta went up by 0.1 per cent to 633,407 in May 2005.

In Gozo, the number of resident nights more than halved, from 5,702 last year to 2,746 in May this year. On the other hand, compared to May last year, the number of non-resident nights increased by 15.2 per cent.