Tourist arrivals and nights spent in hotels during April advanced by 12.9 and 10.0 per cent respectively when compared to the corresponding month last year.

Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis welcomed the statistics.

The NSO said arrivals totalled 143,637, while total nights spent amounted to 752,685. All hotel categories recorded increases in total nights spent, with the largest share of guest nights reported in 4-star hotels, accounting for 348,166 nights, or 46.3 per cent of the total.

The average length of stay went down from 5.4 nights in April 2013 to 5.2 nights in April this year. The net use of bed-places stood at 63.8 per cent, up by 6.0 percentage points when compared to the corresponding month last year.

Regional breakdown
Total arrivals in Malta numbered 137,140, up by 13.1 per cent over April 2013. Additionally, a rise of 9.8 per cent was recorded in the number of nights spent. Meanwhile, the average length of stay edged down by 0.2 of a night to 5.3, when compared to last year. The net occupancy rate advanced from 58.4 per cent to 64.5 per cent.

Total arrivals and nights spent in Gozo and Comino increased by 8.6 and 15.0 when compared to last year, reaching 6,497 and 21,143 respectively.

Capacity
On a national level, there were 159 active collective accommodation establishments during April, with a net capacity of 17,813 bedrooms and 39,517 bed-places. On average, each establishment had 2.2 beds per room.

January-April 2014
Total arrivals during the first four months this year amounted to 406,145, an increase of 11.3 per cent over 2013. Total nights spent went up by 5.3 per cent, reaching 2.1 million.

The net use of bed-places rose by 3.0 percentage points to 48.6 per cent.