The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) has confirmed that Malta has registered an increase of 11.2 percent in tourist numbers in the January-April period of 2016. The Department of Information said Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis received these results with great pride, especially considering that on average, countries in our region did not register any particular increase in April whereas Malta saw an 8.1 percent increase in that single month.

The UNWTO has just published statistics regarding the number of global tourists in the first four months of 2016. 348 million tourists have travelled around the world, which means an increase of 5.3 percent over last year's January-April period.

 

The number of tourists who have journeyed to Europe in the same months has increased by 4.4 percent. In Eurozone countries, the increase is of 6.4 percent while in the Mediterranean region and the South of Europe, the increase is of 4.3 percent.

Dr Zammit Lewis said that this confirms the government’s work in the tourism sector, which is the most important industry on the island. These results in what are considered shoulder months prove that work to tackle these particular months has been effective.

 

 “And so we need to keep working together with the private sector to offer a quality product so that the tourism industry - which is the source of income for thousands of families in Malta and Gozo and a man pillar in the economic success of this country - will continue to be strong and even becoming stronger, so that Malta will remain the best in Europe in this sector and supersede results which our Mediterranean competitors have achieved,” Dr Zammit Lewis concluded.