Malta was affected "much more" than any other European country by the ash cloud that grounded thousands of flights over the past week, according to Parliamentary Secretariat for Tourism, Mario de Marco.
"We are the most dependent on air transport. About 98 per cent of our tourists come by air, so anything that affects the airline industry will affect us," he said.
He said estimates showed a loss of 13,000 tourists over the past week alone. These would have either cancelled or postponed their visit, depending on how flexible their plans were. With an average of seven bed nights each, this means that almost 90,000 bed nights were lost this month.
The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association estimated that about 40,000 arrivals were lost, taking into consideration those who cancelled due to uncertainty.
Another problem exacerbating things for Malta was that the countries mostly affected by airline restrictions happened to be the island's largest markets, including the UK, Germany and Italy.
Bookings for May came to a standstill as soon as news about the volcano in Iceland broke out because many did not know how long it would take for the situation to improve.
Dr de Marco pointed out that, while travel to Malta from countries that contributed most to the tourism industry were almost completely stopped, travel back to those countries was still a possibility.
"Many were travelling to Rome and going home by train to, say, France or Germany, so while we gained some extra bed nights from tourists who were stranded here, this was not enough to offset the problem. For argument's sake, if we lost 80,000 bed nights, we only gained 20,000."
He said this was a big pity because Malta's tourism was beginning to recover, with a 13 per cent increase in passenger movements over last year. It was not clear what sort of long-term effects the ash crisis would have.
"It's still too early to quantify the actual damage but the loss is significant. We just have to work harder," he said.
Asked whether he thought the government should give financial assistance to airlines forced to offer compensation to their clients, Dr de Marco said he did not like making rash decisions.
"We haven't entered into this discussion yet. There's an issue of interpretation of passenger rights and airline obligations. We cannot forget that this was an 'act of God' and if there's an issue of helping the tourism industry, hoteliers also suffered."
He said that if any discussion were to take place, it would happen at a higher level, such as at the EU Council of Ministers.
"But first we need to take stock. Today is the first day that there are full flights. Let's see if there are going to be ripple effects."
The opposition spokesman for tourism, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca urged the government to hold talks with Air Malta and the tourism industry to help the recovery process.
Ms Coleiro Preca praised Air Malta for its efforts to help stranded passengers but said the crisis had come at a bad time for tourism, which was still reeling from months of financial losses because of the international financial crisis and the increase in oil prices.
She said other countries were already considering compensation to the tourism industry.