Tourist arrivals in April reached 166,252, an increase of 8.1 per cent when compared to the corresponding month of 2015. 

A total of 137,061 inbound tourist trips were carried out for holiday purposes, while a further 12,550 were undertaken for business purposes, the NSO said.

Tourists from EU Member States went up by 8.2 per cent to 146,113. The largest proportion of inbound tourists was aged between 25 and 44, followed by those within the 45-64 age bracket.

Total nights spent went up by 7.4 per cent when compared to April 2015, amounting to 1,095,753 nights. The largest share of guest nights (64.0 per cent) was spent in hotels.

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €123.1 million, an increase of 3.3 per cent over the corresponding month of 2015.

January-April 2016

Tourist trips from January to April amounted to 446,226, an increase of 11.1 per cent over the same period in 2015. Total nights spent by inbound tourists went up by 9.3 per cent, surpassing 3.1 million nights.

Total tourism expenditure was estimated at €332.5 million, 7.0 per cent higher than that recorded for 2015. Total expenditure per capita stood at €745, a decrease of 3.7 per cent when compared to 2015.

In a statement, the Malta Tourism Authority said it was satisfied with the sustained growth in inbound tourism, in particular with the diversity of positive results across the different age groups, source markets, type of accommodation used and motivational interests.

It observed that all the major source markets showed increased tourism flows with the United Kingdom recording the largest absolute increase of 12,471 (10%), followed by Italy +6,360 (9%) and Scandinavia +6,056 (+33%). In percentage terms have seen substantial growth from the Spanish market of 28% and USA market of 25%.