Visiting English language students spent up to €145 million last year, Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella said yesterday.

Addressing the annual general meeting of the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations, Mr Vella said he expected figures to show that about 85,000 foreign students had spent 250,000 student weeks on the island last year.

The previous year’s statistics showed continued growth in the industry.

“The figures for 2013 have not been compiled yet but if we extrapolate the figures for 2012 on to 2013 and make some basic assumptions, we would see further growth,” he said.

Mr Vella said that, in 2012, there were 1.59 million student bed nights, with most students staying an average of 2.8 weeks each. Once on the island, students continued to contribute to the economy, he said.

Mr Vella pointed out that students had spent €135 million in 2012 over and above tuition fees. This, he said, made up some 10 per cent of the total tourist generated income.

EFL teachers, support staff and host families also benefited from the increase. Mr Vella said the 40 language schools across the island had paid their staff €12.37 million in 2012 alone.

Figures released by the National Statistics Office last year showed that one in every 18 visitors to the island was a language student.

Mr Vella said 88 per cent of students came from mainland Europe, with two out of every three hailing from Germany, France, Spain, Russia or Italy.

“Our English language sector is a success story which we continue to review with pride. Contrary to most segments, in the TEFL market we have carved a niche spread across the whole global market,” said Mr Vella.

“What started off as something dependent on host families has now expanded to contribute further to the whole tourism industry.”