Malta had the lowest hotel rates in Western Europe during the first six months of the year, a new international survey has shown.

The average price per night for a twin hotel room in Malta from January to June was €73, accor-ding to Hotels.com’s Hotel Price Index (HPI).

The next lowest averages were in financially stricken Portugal (€77) and Ireland (€81).

Malta’s average rate fell five per cent from the first six months of 2011, when it was €77.

In percentage terms, this was the seventh biggest year-on-year price fall out of 74 countries surveyed.

Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) president Tony Zahra said the association was “certainly not” happy with the level of room rates in Malta.

MHRA informed hotelier members in its first quarter presentation that 2012 was likely to be a record year for arrivals and bed nights and they should not lower rates.

“With some regret, MHRA notes some hoteliers did panic and lowered their rates. Those that followed our advice are happier today than those who did not,” Mr Zahra said.

He added it would be fairer to compare Malta’s rates with direct competitors in the Mediterranean.

Doing this, Croatia (€113), Italy (€103), Turkey (€91), Cyprus (€87), France (€87), Montenegro (€82), Spain (€82), Greece (€81) Morocco (€80) and Egypt (€75) all had higher rates in the first six months of 2012.

Only Tunisia out all Mediterranean countries surveyed had a cheaper average than Malta (€67). Mr Zahra denied the island was mostly attracting low-budget guests.

“Product Malta has different levels, ranging from five-star to three-star hotels and holiday apartments.

“These attract the type of clientele they were aimed at, so it is wrong to assume only low-budget tourists are coming to Malta,” he said.

He suggested “dreamers and visionaries” should draft a plan of how they see tourism in 10 years.