Tourist arrivals in September were estimated at 194,189, half per cent more than the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said.
It said that excluding passengers who stayed overnight on board their berthed cruise ship, total arrivals amounted to 192,550.
A total of 169,108 inbound tourist trips were for holiday reasons, while a further 11,867 were undertaken for business purposes.
Inbound tourists from EU states went up by 2.4 per cent to 162,429 when compared to the same month last year. Total nights spent went up by four per cent reaching 1.6 million.
Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €195.9 million, an increase of 5.2 per cent.
Arrivals between January and September amounted to 1,409,119, an increase of
4.9 per cent over the same period last year.