Just over half the passengers who arrived at Malta International Airport stayed in collective accommodation, down to 52% from 58% a year earlier.
There were 357,769 arrivals in August, which includes Maltese and passengers in transit, but the activity level is an interesting indicator of how the number of guests staying in collective accommodation is falling, something the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association has been lamenting for years.
The number of guests went up by 10.7% to 186,140, well below the 24% increase in MIA arrivals.
Another factor for hotels and guest-houses was that guests stayed for only six nights on average, compared with 6.4 nights a year ago, according to the report issued today by the National Statistics Office.
Occupancy was 84.9 per cent, up 1.1 percentage points compared to August 2016.