Malta topped the EU rankings last year for the percentage of visitors taking up nights in hotels and other tourist accommodation compared to the nights spent by local residents.

At 96 per cent, Malta was followed by Cyprus scoring 94 per cent and Croatia with 92 per cent.

The figures were released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU.

The agency said that, according to its early estimates, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU last year reached a new record of about 2.8 billion, up by 3.2 per cent over the previous year.

It noted that, since 2009, there had been a steady increase in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU, driven by the rise in the nights spent by non-residents.

Between 2014 and 2015, the total number of nights spent in Maltese tourist accommodation rose 1.3 per cent to 8.9 million. However, while the share of non-residents rose 1.2 per cent, the increase in nights by residents was of 3.9 per cent.

The number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU last year reached a new record

For its size, Malta kicks above its weight in the tourism stakes, beating larger countries like Estonia (5.8 million nights in all) and Latvia (4.1m), but standing still some way off its Mediterranean competitor Cyprus which draws 14.2 million.

Spain took most nights of all in the EU, at 421 million, up by 4.3 per cent when compared to the previous year, ahead of France, Italy and Germany.

France reported an increase of 2.8 per cent, with 413 million nights recorded, while an increase of 1.8 per cent was noted in Italy, where 385 million nights were spent.

In Germany the number of nights spent increased by 3.3 per cent to 379 million.

“In absolute figures, Spain, with 268 million nights, Italy with 191 million nights and France with 134 million nights recorded the highest number of nights spent by non-residents in their tourism accommodation establishments.”

Eurostat said the early estimates include nights spent for both business and leisure.