Maltese travel down 10 per cent

The number of Maltese going abroad in the first three months of this year fell by more than 10 per cent from the same period last year, statistics issued by the National Statistics Office show.

Between January and March 2005 a total of 47,030 passengers left Malta by air or sea, with the figure going down by just under 5,000 to 42,213 in the first quarter of this year.

Air passengers decreased from 45,506 to 41,074. A Lm10 increase in the departure tax for Maltese outbound passengers was introduced last August, pushing the tax up to Lm20. March alone saw a decrease of almost 12 per cent in air travel, in contrast to a 30.4 per cent increase between March 2004 and March 2005.

The NSO said male outbound passengers accounted for 66.5 per cent of the total in the first three months.

The greatest proportion of outbound passengers - 46 per cent - were aged between 25 and 44, followed by passengers in the 45 to 64 age group and 15 to 24 age group.

The vast majority of passengers - 77.3 per cent - travelled to EU destinations, with almost 30 per cent of those going to the UK followed by Italy with 24 per cent.