Sharp drop in tourist arrivals in March - Government explains

Tourist arrivals in March totalled 80,980, a decrease of 18.7 per cent
over the corresponding month last year, the NSO said today.

Total nights spent stood at 637,450, with an average length of stay of 7.9 nights.

Excluding the effect of last year's unrest in Libya, the decline was 9.2 per cent, the NSO said.

It said that during March, 63,363 visitors came to Malta on holiday, while a further 9,671 were business trips. Consequently, holidaymakers comprised the absolute majority of inbound tourists, albeit a decrease of 12 per cent over last year.

The number of tourists from EU countries dropped by 10 per cent. Nevertheless this category remained in the majority with a share of 86 per cent of total inbound tourism.

The number of tourists from non-EU countries almost fell by half.

The main inbound tourism markets continued to be the UK and Italy, jointly accounting for 47 per cent of total tourists.
Non-package travel slightly exceeded package travel, with an estimated 51 per cent of total inbound travel. Nonetheless, non-package travel dropped by 29 per cent.

Decreases were also recorded in the number of repeat tourists and first-time visitors.

Total nights spent during March decreased by 16 per cent, reaching 637,450 nights. The majority of guest nights were spent in collective accommodation establishments. The average length of stay stood at 7.9 nights, up by 0.3 of a night when compared to March last year. Total tourist expenditure was
estimated at €61.5 million - 8% lower than that for 2011.

January-March 2012

Inbound tourists during the first quarter totalled 204,925, down by 11 per cent over 2011. 84 per cent of all inbound visitors comprised tourists coming from EU Member States, despite a drop of 7 per cent. In absolute terms, this change was mostly attributable to a decrease in holiday visits, mainly from the Italian, British and French markets. On the other hand, the German market saw a gain of 18 per cent when compared to last year's levels.

On a gender basis, male tourists exceeded females and accounted for 55 per cent of the total.

Most of the inbound tourists fell within the 45-64 year age group, and were followed by the 25-44 age bracket.
Total nights spent during the first quarter were estimated at over 1.6 million - a decrease of 8 per cent over last year. Nights spent in collective accommodation and in private accommodation decreased by 6 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €155.4 million - 3% lower than
that for 2011. Per capita expenditure was estimated at €758, up by 9% over 2011.

GOVERNMENT EXPLAINS

In a statement, the Tourism Ministry mentioned three factors which contributed to a decline in tourists during the winter as compared to last year.

These were the influx in February and March last year owing to the crisis in Libya, lower seat capacity because of fewer flights by Air Malta, Ryanair and Easyjet, and the economic crisis of Malta's most important markets, including Britain and Italy.

Despite these problems, Malta over the weekend still had more tourist nights and an increase in tourist spending, the ministry said.

It said that between November and March, 342,420 tourists came to Malta, a drop of 20,697 (5.7%) over the same period last year. When one excluded the influx caused by the Libyan crisis (including the evacuations) the drop was 7,542 (2.2%) when compared to 2010/2011.

Between November and March this year, the total of tourism nights was 2,787,359, an increase of 16,466 (0.6%) over the same period in the previous year. The 'average length of stay' of tourists this year rose from 7.6 nights to 8.1 nights.

Tourist spending rose by €7.4 million (2.9%) to €260.8million.

The ministry said there will be a slight increase in seat capacity over the summer. Although Air Malta will operate one aircraft less, Ryanair in April started to operate seven new routes and Air France and Air Berlin had also started new services.