Out of the 2.6 million tourists who visited Malta in 2018,1.98 million of them stayed in hotels or guesthouses, an increase of 8.4 per cent over the same period in 2017.

The National Statistics Office reported on Thursday that between them, tourists spent 10.1 million nights in collective accommodation.

Occupancy rates improved by 2.0 percentage points, reaching 67.6 per cent, with the only drop in bed nights – albeit a minor one – being in the five-star hotels.

There were 191 collective establishments in 2018, up from 174 a year earlier, which meant the number of available bed spaces went up to 40,966 from 39,048.