Tourist arrivals in September dropped by 2.7 percent when compared to the same month in 2007 but total nights spent increased by 2.6 percent, the NSO said today.

It said arrivals last month reached 139,794. An increase in Dutch (+53%), Italian (+16%) and German visitors (+8.8%) was not enough to compensate for drops from the UK (-9.8) France (-20.7%) and Spain (-17%).

Total nights spent increased by 2.6 per cent when compared to the same month in 2007. Year on year, total nights spent in private accommodation increased by 37.6 percent, while hotels registered an drop of 10.4 percent.

Tourists in the first nine months of 2008 totalled 1,045,168, an increase of 7.8 percent over the corresponding period a year ago. The growth was attributable to an increase in holiday visits from the German, Italian and Spanish markets. On the other hand decreases were recorded in the British, American and Libyan markets. The British market alone shed 13,762 tourists.