Tourists spend Lm4m less in first 10 months

Tourists spent Lm4.1 million less in the first 10 months of the year than they did in the same period last year, according to figures issued by the National Statistics Office.

Per head, their expenditure decreased from Lm193.8 to Lm186.

The NSO said that tourist expenditure on package tours was estimated at Lm187.9 million, a decrease of Lm14.6 million or 7.2 per cent.

However, non-package tourists spent Lm45.3 million on airfares and Lm29.7 million on accommodation, pushing total expenditure on non-package travel up by approximately Lm12.8 million or 20.5 per cent.

Other expenditure from both package and non-package tourists together decreased by Lm2.3 million to Lm128 million from Lm130.3 million in January-October 2004.

Tourist air departures totalled 1,040,961, an increase of 21,978 or 2.2 per cent over the same period last year, the NSO said.

The number of tourists from the British market, which accounted for 41.9 per cent, increased by 8.1 per cent. Other increases in tourist departures included those from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the US.

On the other hand, French tourists, who accounted for 7.5 per cent, decreased by 4.3 per cent. Other declining markets included those from Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Libya and a group of "other" markets.

In the period under review, the number of nights spent by tourists departing by air was estimated at 9,919,718, almost unchanged when compared to the same period last year.

The number of nights spent in hotels went down by 0.6 per cent and accounted for 64.4 per cent of the total nights spent.

Tourists opting for a stay in Gozo reached 58,130 - 5.6 per cent of the total - an increase of 16,887 tourists when compared to the same period last year.