36.6% of businesses questioned in a GRTU survey have reported the same level of business this Christmas as in Christmas 2012.

20.9% said businesses was better and 4.07% said it was much better; 26.16% said it was worse than last year and 12.21% said it was much worse.

Just under 46% said they had expected the same and 44.7% said they had expected better. Just 9.3% said they had expected worse.

Just under a quarter of respondents said sales were affected by online shopping.

22% said they were affected by poor customer confidence and 13% blamed the increase in the cost of living and local competition.

The biggest contributing factors seen by those who reported increased sales were lower prices (26%) better quality tourists (23%) more disposable income (14.5% and the fact that electricity prices will be reduced (14.5%).

Parking

The changes to the Valletta CVA system were  welcomed by the Valletta Business community and there seemed to be agreement that they have had a positive effect on sales, the GRTU said.

Many however still complained that even though customers were being attracted back to Valletta there was still no parking available.

"The situation remains whereby many spaces are still taken up by residential and Government reserved parking places. Some respondents claimed that further clarification and an information campaign was needed to make clear what parking and accessibility possibilities were possible in Valletta."

Sliema businesses also complained of parking issues.