The growth in tourist guest nights is being absorbed by the private accommodation segment with the hotel segment facing a marginal decline in volumes, a survey has found.

The BOV Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association Survey found that while the overall number of tourist arrivals and guest nights continued to increase in the second quarter of the year, there was significant contrast in trends between private and collective accommodation.

Within the hotel sector, the four-star segment appeared to have gained market share at the expense of the five-star and three-star segments which reported declines in their levels of occupancy compared to the same period last year.

NSO statistics for July and August as well as monthly surveys by Deloitte were showing that this trend was continuing in the third quarter.

While guest night volumes appeared to be presenting the hotel sector with a challenge in 2016, some average room rates and other hotel revenue streams continued to report a relatively significant upward trend as consistently recorded in recent years.

Accordingly, all sectors reported increased revenue in the first six months of the year, with the four star sector registering the most significant increase at 10.7 per cent compared to the first six months of 2015.

All hotel sectors also reported increases in their overall cost base.
In the four-star sector, this was more than offset by the revenue growth emanating from both rate and occupancy increases.

In the three-star and five-star sectors, the rate increases were substantially offset by increase in costs and both sectors reported relatively consistent levels of gross operating profits per available room for the second quarter year on year with marginal growth (+two per cent) in the three-star sector - a marginal decline (-two per cent) in the five-star sector.