A total of 64,887 tourists visited in January, an increase of 5.8 per cent over last year, according to Tourstat data published by the National Statistics Office.

The tourists’ average length of stay was 9.1 nights, an advance of 16.8 per cent.

According to the data, 55,811 visited Malta for holiday purposes. First time visitors made up the absolute majority of inbound tourists, although their number was four per cent lower than last year.

Non-package travel was higher than package travel, with an estimated 53 per cent opting for this kind of travel. Tourists travelling by air went up by six per cent, while those travelling by sea dropped by 19 per cent.

Tourists from EU sStates went up by six per cent, while tourists from outside the EU remained practically unchanged.

The UK remained Malta's main tourism market, with a share of 28 per cent of total inbound trips, and was followed by Italy at 19 per cent.

Major tourism markets remained practically unchanged when compared to last year, except for the British and German markets, which advanced by nine and 20 per cent, respectively.

Total expenditure was estimated at €52.9 million, a growth of 8 per cent over the corresponding month last year. Expenditure on package travel went up by 5 per cent, while non-package expenditure decreased by 4 per cent.