Total nights spent in collective accommodation establishments in July this year were recorded at 1,014,582, a decrease of 8.1 per cent over the corresponding month in 2007, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

The NSO said the largest drop was registered in the three-star hotel category.

In the month under review, the average length of stay stood at 7.5 nights.

The NSO said that, accounting for 95.7 per cent of the national bed stock, the overall supply of bed places in Malta stood at 38,089 beds, implying a drop of 2.8 per cent when compared to July last year.

Over the comparative month last year, the net use of bed places in Malta went down by 4.8 percentage points to 82.8 per cent. Year on year, the average length of stay declined by 0.5 nights to 7.7 nights.

Nights spent by non-residents accounted for 97.6 per cent of total guest-nights in Malta.

The NSO said that in Gozo and Comino, the overall supply of bed places stood at 1,729 beds, an increase of four per cent over the comparable month a year ago.

The net use of bed places in July was 71.2 per cent, a decrease of 9.6 percentage points over July last year.

The average length of stay stood at 4.7 nights, a decrease of 0.2 nights. Nights spent by non-residents accounted for 79.7 per cent of total guest-nights in Gozo.