Holidaymakers down, business visitors up

The number of tourists departing from Malta in January, dropped by 5.2 per cent, reaching 50,520, when compared to the corresponding month a year before, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Departures by air were estimated at 50,092, a drop of 4.2 per cent. Departures by sea skidded to 428, a drop of 427.

Air tourists from the UK market increased by 5.1 per cent, 46.6 per cent of the total. Other increases in tourist departures by air were recorded from France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway.

On the other hand, the German market registered a slide of 29.1 per cent reaching 4,596 tourists. Other decreases in tourist departures included those from Austria, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Libya, the USA and a group of "other" markets.

When compared to January last year, the number of holiday tourists dropped by 6.8 per cent to 39,499 and business tourists went up by 5.3 per cent to 6,670.

The number of nights spent by tourists leaving by air was estimated at 485,061, a decrease of 13.2 per cent. The number of nights spent in hotels dropped by 11.3 per cent and accounted for 67.9 per cent of the total nights spent.

Tourists opting for a stay in Gozo reached 1,351 - 2.7 per cent of the total, or 86 fewer tourists when compared to the same month last year.

Expenditure on package tours was estimated at Lm7.4 million, a decrease of Lm1.5 million, or 16.6 per cent. Non-package tourists spent Lm2.4 million on air fares and Lm1.7 million on accommodation thereby increasing total expenditure on non-package travel by about Lm0.5 million, or 14.1 per cent.

Other expenditure from both package and non-package tourists altogether increased by Lm0.3 million to Lm6.3 million from Lm6 million in January last year. Total expenditure dropped by Lm0.6 million or 3.4 per cent.