Malta sole EU member to register drop in tourism

Malta was the only EU member state to register a drop in the number of bed nights last summer, according to data published yesterday by Eurostat, the EU's statistics arm.

When comparing figures for the 2005 summer season (June - September) with those for 2004, the number of nights spent in hotels and similar establishments increased in all EU member states except for Malta which registered a one per cent drop.

According to a breakdown of total nights spent in hotels given by Eurostat, last year Malta registered 37,000 fewer bed nights when compared to 2004. In fact, while the number of nights spent in hotels in 2004 amounted to 3,535,000 nights, the number last year dropped to 3, 498,000 nights.

Eurostat said that on an EU level, the highest relative increases in total nights spent in hotels were recorded in Lithuania (+19.8 per cent), Latvia (+18 per cent), Luxembourg (+12 per cent) and Poland (+9.6 per cent).

Direct tourism competitors of Malta also experienced positive trends. For example, Cyprus increased its bed nights by 5.1 per cent, Greece by 6.5 per cent, Italy by 2.1 per cent and Spain by five per cent.

Many of these countries of course benefit from internal tourism.