The Malta Hotels and Restaurants' Association said this afternoon that its hotel survey continued to show growth in the second quarter of this year, when tourist arrivals grew by 11.4%. Arrivals on a year-to-date basis grew by 15%. The number of guest nights in Q2 increased by 4.7% bringing the increase to year up to 7.7 percent.

MHRA President Kevin DeCesare said the results for the first six months of this year were the best in the past six years.

He said, however, that August was challenging and September was showing a worrying drop of six percent in occupancy levels compared to last year. Although the situation could improve, he said he expected this month to end with a decline of 3.5% compared to September last year.

"The MHRA's concern is the winter. Last year's growth would be difficult to surpass" he said, but Malta was still in time to recover.

He said Immediate action was needed to increase spending on marketing. Other issues including product quality and cleanliness. He said the MHRA was also urging the government to help the opening of more air routes.

Mr DeCesare said the MHRA was also concerned over the persistent shorter average length of stay which necessitated an even greater increase in tourist arrivals to maintain guest-night growth.

The MHRA survey found that five star hotels in the second quarter of this year had an occupancy of 71.4 % (2007 = 77.1%); four star had 80.8% (77.4%) and three-star had 84.4% (70%).