Use of hotel beds down 4.8 per cent

Tourism establishments saw the number of booked rooms fall by almost five per cent in October when compared to the same month last year, the latest official statistics show.

In all, about 710,000 nights were spent in accommodation establishments during October, a drop of 6.8 per cent over the same period last year, the National Statistics Office said.

Three and four-star hotels were the least popular. On an annual basis, the use of beds fell by 4.8 per cent to 59.4 per cent, with the average length of stay being 6.8 nights. Of these, 96.9 per cent of guests were foreigners.

As at the end of the month, the number of beds in accommodation establishments dropped by 1.3 per cent over the same month last year. This amounted to 95.5 per cent of the national bed stock, or 37,142 beds. Of these, 1,735 beds were in Gozo and Comino, an increase of 6.6 per cent over the corresponding month last year.

The statistics come hot on the heels of other data showing a decrease in tourism from cruise ships.

According to the NSO, cruise passenger traffic in November saw a drop of 12,925 passengers over the same month last year.

However, in the first 11 months of the year there was an increase in passengers over the previous year of 11.9 per cent, up to 540,724, but from October things started slipping.

The main bulk of tourists on cruise ships, 77 per cent, came from EU countries, mostly from Spain, Italy, the UK and Germany. The American market represented 57.6 per cent of non-EU passengers.

Then again, the increase in passengers was mainly due to a rise in American, British and Spanish tourists.

At the same time, the German and Italian markets fell by 27,743 and 13,437 passengers respectively.