Total arrivals and nights spent at hotels, guesthouses, aparthotels and hostels in Gozo last January amounted to 1,931 and 5,592, respectively, meaning drops of 22 per cent and 11.9 per cent over the corresponding month last year, the National Statistics Office said.

The NSO said that total arrivals in mainland Malta numbered 56,095, two per cent less than the same month last year. Total nights stood at 330,304 with an average length of stay of 5.9 nights. The occupancy rate stood at 29.3 per cent, at par with 2011.

Overall, the number of arrivals  stood at 58,026, down by 2.8 per cent when compared to the same month last year.

The NSO said that total nights for January amounted to 335,896, 1.7 per cent less than in January 2011.

The average length of stay stood at 2.9 nights and the net use of bed-places at 10.6 per cent, 1.5 percentage points lower than last year.

Almost all establishments registered drops in the number of nights, except for the 4-star hotel category, which registered an increase of 10.8 per cent.

The average length of stay was calculated at 5.8 nights.

The overall net occupancy rate at hotels, guesthouses, aparthotels and hostels stood at 28.4 per cent, down by 0.2 percentage points when compared to 2011 levels. At 38.5 per cent, the highest net use of bed-places was recorded among four-star hotels.

Capacity

On a national level, the overall net supply of bed-places stood at 34,763, of which 33,416 were in Malta and the remaining 1,347 in Gozo and Comino

The average number of beds per room was 2.1 for both regions.