The overall occupancy rate in hotels and other tourism establishments stood at 30.5 percent in December, down by 4.8 percentage points when compared to the same month in 2007, the NSO said today.

It said that total tourist nights were recorded at 341,194, a decrease of 13.7 percent over the corresponding month in 2007, with the largest drops being registered in the three and four-star hotel categories.

In the month under review, the average length of stay stood at 5.4 nights.

Accounting for 95.6 per cent of the national bed-stock, the overall supply of bed-places in Malta stood at 37,452 beds, an increase of 2.9 percent when compared to December 2007.

On an annual basis, the net use of bed-places in Malta went down by 4.8 percentage points to 31 percent. The average length of stay stood at 5.6 nights. Nights spent by non-residents accounted for 91.4 percent of total guest-nights in Malta.

In Gozo and Comino, the overall supply of bed-places stood at 1,736 beds, an increase of 5.5 percent over the comparable month a year earlier. The net use of bed-places in December was 18.2 percent, an decrease of 2.3 percentage points over December 2007. The average length of stay stood at 2.5 nights, an increase of 0.1.

Nights spent by non-residents accounted for 44.8 percent of total guest-nights in Gozo.