Malta outperformed the overwhelming majority of EU member states in terms of tourism last year, figures released in Brussels show.

The number of non-resident bed nights in 2010 rose by a whopping 11.6 per cent over the previous year, more than twice the EU average (5.1 per cent), according to new Eurostat figures.

Together with the Baltic member states, Malta managed to achieve the highest increase in hotel occupancy rates for EU non-residents, a total of 7.5 million bed nights.

The EU statistics also show Malta’s direct European competitors in this area failed to perform as well. Spain’s performance was the closest to Malta, registering an increase of 8.9 per cent in bed nights, followed by Cyprus (3.9 per cent), Italy (2.4 per cent) and Greece (0.8 per cent).

A European Commission official described Malta’s tourism performance for 2010 as “outstanding”, saying the increase registered was even more significant considering that, overall, tourism in the EU decreased by one per cent during the same year as a result of the effects of recession.

The overwhelming majority of tourists visiting Malta are EU citizens, with the British, Germans and Italians topping the list.

Eurostat said the number of nights spent in hotels by residents and non-residents last year increased in most member states, except for Romania (-8.7 per cent), the UK (-2.1 per cent), Slovenia (-1 per cent) and Italy (-0.8 per cent).

On the other hand, the largest increases were recorded in Estonia (14.1 per cent), Latvia (11.6 per cent), Lithuania (11.1 per cent) and Malta (11 per cent).

Eurostat said the highest number of nights spent by tourists in hotels last year was recorded in Spain (268 million nights), Italy (245 million), Germany (229 million), France (196 million) and the UK (166 million). These five countries accounted for more than 70 per cent of the total number of hotel nights spent in the EU 27.