Occupancy in hotels and other tourist establishments declined by 4.4 percent in September when compared to the corresponding month last year, the NSO said today.

It said total nights spent in collective accommodation establishments reached 810,293, a decrease of 7.8 per cent over the corresponding month in 2007, with the largest drop being registered in the 3-star hotel category. The average length of stay was 6.5 nights.

Accounting for 95.5 percent of the national bed stock, the overall supply of bed-places in Malta stood at 37,148 beds, a decrease of 2.7 percent when compared to September 2007. On an annual basis, the net use of bed-places in Malta went down by 4.3 percentage points to 69.4 per cent. Year on year, the average length of stay decreased by 0.2 nights to stand at 6.7 nights. Nights spent by non-residents accounted for 97.3 per cent of total guest-nights in Malta.

In Gozo and Comino, the overall supply of bed-places stood at 1,736 beds, an increase of 6.9 percent over the comparable month a year ago. The net use of bed-places in September was 71.7 percent, a decrease of 5.2 percentage points over September 2007. The average length of stay was 4.9 nights, an increase of 0.8 nights.