Updated: June record in tourism

A total of 147,361 tourists visited Malta last month, an increase of 6.2 per cent over the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said.

The Tourism Ministry said in a statement that this was the third consecutive monthly record.

The NSO said tourists spent 1.2 million nights in Malta, an increase of 12.6 per cent, and their average length of stay was eight nights. They spent €128.6 million, an increase of 13.1 per cent.

The number of tourists from EU states increased by five per cent. 86 per cent of tourists to Malta were from the EU. The number of non-EU tourists also increased, reaching 21,157.

The UK and Italy remained the main tourism markets, with shares of 32 and 11 per cent of total tourism, respectively.

When compared to last year, the British market registered an increase of seven per cent, while tourists from Germany and Italy declined by seven and eight per cent, respectively.

The NSO said that the number of arrivals by mid-year reached 607,141, a drop of two per cent over the comparable period.

There was, however, a 3.5 per cent increase in the number of nights spent in Malta spending €15.3 million more than in the same period last year.

The ministry said the MIA a few week ago announced that the number of passengers in the first six months was 1.58 million, the highest ever registered.

The results obtained, it said, were due to the work carried out by the government and stakeholders to improve accessibility and increase routes.

The number of direct routes to Malta increased from 45 in 2006 to 81 this year. The positive results were also due to the increase in the island's promotion by the Malta Tourism Authority.