28% of tourists staying in private accommodation

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association is trying to analyse a significant shift in the number of tourists who are staying in private accommodation rather than hotels, guesthouses and hostels.

The trend has been eclipsed by the overall increase of 3.6 per cent of tourists who stayed in so-called collective establishments in the first four months of this year, according to figures released by the National Statistics Office.

However, the NSO report also indicated that there was a staggering 31 per cent increase in “tourists” who opted for private accommodation.

This means that out of the 2.56 million tourists who arrived in Malta between January and April, 724,000 stayed in private accommodation – 28 per cent of all arrivals.

The situation is also apparent when one analyses the guest nights: Between January and March, there was a 12.7 per cent increase in guest nights which was made up of a 6.1 per cent increase in collective accommodation and a 35.7 per cent increase in private accommodation.

The shift has important consequences for hotels, which are not benefitting proportionally from the increase in tourist arrivals.

Consultancy firm Deloitte, which looks after the MHRA’s quarterly statistics, believes that at least part of this shift is due to more English-language students.

There was an increase of 18.2 per cent in 2012 – but this alone could not account for the shift: EFL students only represent 5.7 per cent of all foreigners visiting Malta last year.

EFL students could, however, be driving up the overall average length of stay, which went up from 7.1 nights to 7.3 nights in the first quarter. The average length of stay of students for 2012 was estimated at 2.8 weeks.

Deloitte’s Financial Advisory Leader Raphael Aloisio believes that another factor could be the i-gaming industry.

“The shift could represent people who are coming to Malta to stay with friends who work within the i-gaming industry,, which now represents some €170 million.

“There are indications that i-gaming employees now represent almost half of all the property rental market,” he said.

The NSO figures for Malta’s Gross Domestic Product show that the category which covers gambling activities (as well as various other activities relating to the arts and entertainment) grew to €655 million in 2012, up 28 per cent over 2009.