The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) has presented its quarterly survey results for Q2 of 2017, which show, among other things, that the number of tourist arrivals during the months of April to June 2017 increased by 16.9% when compared to the same period last year.
The survey, carried out by BOV Deloitte, continued to register significant growth.
Total guest nights increased by 11.9%. The rate at which total guest nights have been increasing is however slower than the growth in arrivals, thus resulting in a decrease in the average length of stay.
The hotel sector during Q2 continued to report a strong overall performance. At the same time, the shift towards private accommodation continued to increase at a much faster pace than that for collective accommodation.
Guest nights in private accommodation increased by 20.9% and accounted for close to 40% of total guest nights in Q2 2017. Guest nights spent in hotels increased by a more conservative 6.7% during the second quarter of the year.
During the first six months of 2017 almost one million tourists came to Malta and spent more than 6.5 million guest nights, 62% of which in collective accommodation with the rest spent in private accommodation. By June 2017 total tourist expenditure reached slightly more than €750 million, resulting in an average spend per guest night of €114.
“The results of the BOV Deloitte Hotel Survey continue to affirm the trend towards the strengthening of the hotel sector on the back of consistent growth in Malta’s tourism numbers,” MHRA said.
Occupancy levels for the 5-star and 3-star sectors increased by 4.7% and 5% respectively. On the other hand, occupancy levels in the 4-star sector remained stable.
The BOV Deloitte survey included a research about Malta’s EU Presidency effect on the hospitality sector. It was reported that the first six months of 2017 the Maltese hospitality sector benefitted significantly from the EU Presidency by:
• Close to 300 events which were hosted in local hotels (mainly 5-star hotels)
• Around 22,000 participants attended these events
• Total revenue generated from these events was just under €850K
• An additional €850k were generated from food and beverages provided during these events
• 22,000 room nights were booked by 8,200 guests with a room revenue of over€3.1M
Closing the meeting, MHRA President Mr Tony Zahra spoke about the budget and welcomed the fiscal consolidation, the increase in the budget for the Malta Tourism Authority and measures that aim to improve the long-term sustainability of the general environment.
Zahra however again called on Government to implement concrete measures to address the issue of irregular and unlicensed accommodation and other services which are creating an unfair level playing field for legitimate businesses and resulting into millions of euro in forfeited revenues for Government.
MHRA recognised the government’s efforts towards achieving progressive growth of the tourism sector and looks forward to working with the Ministry for Tourism to revisit the current national tourism policy. "The policy now needs to be upgraded given the successes achieved and the limitations imposed by the physical size of the islands,” Zahra said.
The event was co-sponsored by BOV.