Tourists spent 511,177 nights in Malta in January, two per cent more than in the same month last year in spite of a four per cent drop in arrivals.

The National Statistics Office said Tourstat survey data showed that there were 52,496 trips for holiday purposes, 7,088 for business.

Consequently, holidaymakers comprised the absolute majority of inbound tourists, a drop of five per cent over 2011.

As in previous months, most inbound tourists came from EU states, but there was an increase in the number of non-EU tourists.

The main inbound tourism markets continued to be the UK and Italy, jointly accounting for a 47 per cent share of total tourist visits.

A notable 21 per cent drop was registered in the Italian market while other markets remained virtually unchanged.

The number of first-time visitors remained unchanged from January 2011, while repeat tourists registered a drop of 10 per cent over the same period.

Non-package travel was slightly higher than package travel, with an estimated 52 per cent of total inbound trips. Nonetheless, inbound tourists opting for package travel advanced by 19 per cent when compared to January last year.

The average length of stay stood at 8.2 nights, up by half a night when compared to January last year.

Total expenditure was estimated at €49.3 million, up by one per cent over 2011.

Expenditure on package travel advanced by 24 per cent and stood at €15.5 million, while non-package expenditure decreased marginally, reaching €14.1 million.