Tourists departing to the United States increased by 551 over the same month last year. Other markets recording increases in tourist departures included the Belgian, the Danish, the Dutch and a group of “other” markets.
On the other hand, departing German tourists accounted for 10.4 per cent of all tourist departures and declined by 2.8 per cent. Other drops in tourist departures were recorded from, among others, the Austrian, the French, the British, the Russian and the Libyan markets.
Tourist departures: January – May
In the period under review, tourist departures declined by two per cent over the same period last year and reached 358,893
In the same period last year, tourist departures by air reached 366,043. Around 42.5 per cent of the tourists departing during this period was made up of British tourists who declined by 3.6 per cent over the same period last year.
Other declining markets included the Austrian, the French, the German, the Dutch, the Russian and the Libyan markets.
The Italian market, which accounted for approximately eight per cent of all tourist departures during the period under review, increased by 3,908 tourists or 16.6 per cent. Other markets recording increases in tourist departures included the Belgian, the Danish, the US, the Norwegian, and the Swedish markets
Purpose of visit
In the period under review, tourists accounted for 84.5 per cent of all visitors while business trips accounted for 9.1 per cent. This shows a decline in business travel to Malta compared to the same period last year, when business trips accounted for 9.4 per cent of all departures.
Accommodation
It is estimated that during the January-May period, the number of nights spent in the Maltese Islands by tourists departing by air amounted to a total of 3,412,424, a decrease of 3.9 per cent over the same period last year. The number of nights spent in hotel accommodation establishments accounted for 69 per cent of the latter total nights spent. In the period under review, a total of 283,183 tourists or 78.9 per cent of all tourists stayed in hotels; an increase of 6.7 per cent over the previous year.
Tourism expenditure
In the period under review, expenditure on package tours to the Maltese Islands was estimated at Lm60 million; a decrease of Lm6.6 million or 9.8 per cent over last year. Non-package tourists spent Lm13.7 million on airfares and Lm7.8 million on accommodation, thereby decreasing total expenditure on non-package travel by approximately Lm1.5 million or 6.5 per cent over the first five months of last year.
Other expenditure accruing to both package and non-package tourists decreased by Lm3.2 million to Lm40.6 million from Lm43.8 million in the same period last year. In the period under review, total expenditure declined by Lm11.3 million or 8.5 per cent to Lm122.1 million. As a result, per capita expenditure decreased to 170.1 from 182.2 in the same period last year.