Strong increase in Maltese going abroad

The number of Maltese going abroad grew by a fifth in November when compared to the same month in 2006, figures given this morning by the National Statistics Office show.

The office said the number of Maltese departing by air or sea amounted to 19,316, of whom 16,316 travelled to EU countries, notably the UK and Italy.That number was 20.3 percent higher than in November 2006.

In the January-November period the number of outbound tourists reached 254,658, an increase of 9.1 percent over the same period in the previous year. Of these 85.3 per cent travelled to European Union destinations, particularly Italy and the UK.

Just under 60 percent of the travellers were male.

The largest proportion of outbound passengers - 45.9 per cent – were between 25 and 44 years old, followed by those in the 45-64 age bracket who accounted for 39.4 per cent of the total.