The early start to the Easter holiday season sent outbound tourism figures soaring.

Outbound trips during March amounted to more than 29,450, an increase of almost 21 per cent over the same period last year, national statistics revealed.

The Easter holiday season, which this year began in March as opposed to April last year, was one of the main contributory factors to the increase, the National Statistics Office revealed.

The number of outbound tourist trips towards EU countries in March totalled 25,570, an increase of 19 per cent, while another 3,881 trips were towards non-EU destinations, an increase of 31 per cent.

Italy and the UK remained the most popular destinations, sharing between them 61 per cent of total tourist trips from Malta. Almost all European markets recorded increases when compared to last year.

Between January and March, outbound passengers during the first quarter totalled 72,725 – an increase of 15 per cent when compared to 2012.

Trips to EU and non-EU destinations had an average length of stay of 6.3 nights and 15.1 nights respectively.

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