In 2016, inbound tourist arrivals increased by 10.2%, reaching close to 2 million tourist arrivals (1,965,928) reaching a total expenditure of €1.7 billion, a 4.3% increase, according to the 2017 edition of the NSO’s Regional Statistics.  

Total nights spent by tourists to Malta reached nearly 15 million, an increase of 5.7% over 2015. Gozo and Comino accounted for 7.4% of the figure, and registered the highest growth across regions exceeding 1.1 million nights, increasing by 10.8%.

Single centre destination inbound tourism, which refers to those individuals who remain at one single accommodation, accounted for the majority of the trips, 94.7%, the rest being twin centre destination trips.

The majority of inbound tourists came from EU Member States (86.2%), with the strongest market being the UK. Most were aged between 25 and 44 (35.1%). More than three-fourths of single centre trips to Malta region were done for holiday purposes amounting to nearly 1.4 million.

First-time tourists accounted for 70.3% while the remainder were repeat tourists.

In 2016, average length of stay stood at 7.3 nights, down by 0.3 of a night when compared to previous year.

Top five places where single centre inbound tourists to Malta region stayed longest included St Julian’s (25%), St Paul’s Bay/Buġibba/Qawra (23%), Sliema (17%), Mellieħa (14%), and Valletta (3%).

When compared to 2015, non-package trips increased by 21.5%, implying that three trips out of five were non-package; the package trips dropped by 3.9% when compared to 2015.

Slightly less than half of the single centre inbound tourists, 48.8%, travelled by other airlines, 48.6% by low-cost airlines. Over the past five consecutive years travelling by low-cost airlines grew at a faster pace than travelling by other airlines.

In 2016, travelling by low-cost airlines increased by 26.7% while travelling by other airlines declined by 3.0% when compared to 2015

In 2016, public transport (bus at 29%) was the most popular form of transport used by single centre inbound tourists to Malta region. This was followed by the taxi (18%) and coach (13%).