Fewer tourists visited Malta last month

An estimated 72,490 tourists visited Malta last month spending here a total of 558,384 nights.

The National Statistics Office said that the majority - 60,463 came for a holiday, 9,069, for business purposes.

The number of first time visitors increased by 3.6 per cent, while repeat tourists registered a drop of 9.3 per cent.

Most, 87.8 per cent, were EU residents and nearly all came to Malta by air.

The total number of tourists residing in private accommodation increased to 14,994, while that of those staying in collective accommodation dropped to 57,496. However, the total number of guest nights increased by 3.1 per cent.

The average length of stay was 7.7 nights, up by 0.3 nights when compared to November last year. However

Since January, an estimated 1,133,164 tourists came, implying a nine per cent drop over the corresponding period last year. This was mostly attributed to a decrease in visits, mainly from the British, German and Scandinavian markets. Increases were recorded in the Italian market.

Most tourists opted for non-package travel but both package and non-package trips decreased by 11.2 and 7.2 per cent, respectively.

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €884.9 million, resulting in a decrease of 12.5 per cent when compared to 2008. Decreases were recorded throughout all expenditure categories.