Tourists spent over €854m in nine months

Tourists spent €854.7 million in the first nine months of the year, a slight increase over last year's €854.4 million, the Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Mario de Marco said in Parliament.

About 38 per cent of the total sum, (€322 million), was spent on package tourism, a sharp drop over the 49.8 per cent, or €402.9 million, registered in 2006, Dr de Marco said on Wednesday, pointing out that tourism is substantially reducing its traditional dependency on the tour operator market.

In fact, 27 per cent, or €230.9 million, of the total spent was attributable to independent tourists. This was a sharp increase over the 17.1 per cent, or €137.9 million, registered in 2006.

Dr de Marco said independent tourists are known to leave more money at their destination by paying directly rather than also paying for commissions that went abroad.

Moreover, money spent on accommodation increased by 86.2 per cent, or €47.4 million, over the €54.9 million spent in 2006.

Dr de Marco said that, despite the international situation, Malta achieved positive results in tourism over the first five months. The rate of growth declined to about 7.8 per cent by the end of September even though the growth rate had been expected to be in the range of four to five per cent.

He said that up to the end of June, visitors had increased by 15 per cent, or 75,500 tourists, this being higher than the EU average. Moreover, by September, hotel nights had risen and more than 1.045 million tourists had visited Malta.