Tourist air departures between January and December 2005 totalled 1,150,769, an increase of 23,362 or 2.1 per cent over 2004, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.
The British market, which accounted for 41.9 per cent, increased by 6.6 per cent. Other registered increases in tourist departures, included those from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and a group of “other” markets. On the other hand, French tourists, who accounted for 7.1 per cent, decreased by 5.0 per cent. Other declining markets included those from Belgium, Italy, Holland, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Libya and the US, the NSO said.
In the period under review, the number of nights spent by tourists departing by air was estimated at 10,933,169, an increase of 0.4 per cent when compared to year 2004. The number of nights spent in hotel accommodation establishments decreased by 0.6 per cent and accounted for 65.1 per cent of the total nights spent. Tourists opting for a stay in Gozo reached 62,113 – 5.4 per cent of the total – an increase of 18,408 tourists when compared to the same period a year earlier.
Expenditure on package tours was estimated at Lm203.7 million, a decrease of Lm15.9 million or 7.2 per cent when compared to previous year. Non-package tourists spent Lm50.1 million on airfares and Lm32.3 million on accommodation thereby increasing total expenditure on non-package travel by approximately Lm13.2 million or 19.0 per cent.
Other expenditure from both package and non-package tourists altogether decreased by Lm2.1 million to Lm141.4 million from Lm143.5 million in January-December 2004. Total expenditure decreased by Lm4.8 million or 1.1 per cent.
On a monthly basis, in December 2005, the number of tourists departing from Malta decreased by 1.9 per cent, when compared to the corresponding month a year earlier, and reached a total of 40,413.
Tourist departures by air were estimated at 40,280, a drop of 1.7 per cent when compared to December 2004. Tourist departures by sea declined to 133, a drop of 62 when compared to the same month a year ago.
Air tourists from the UK market went down by 18 per cent, when compared to December 2004, reaching a share of 39.6 per cent of the total.
Other drops in tourist departures by air were recorded from Italy, Holland, Sweden, Libya and the US. On the other hand, the German market registered an increase of 2,441 tourists – up by 64.0 per cent – reaching a total of 6,255 tourists.
Other increases in tourist departures included those from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Norway, Switzerland, Russia and a group of “other” markets.
When compared to the same period in 2004, the number of holiday tourists decreased by 8.8 per cent to 29,875, whereas business tourists went up by 15.4 per cent to 6,399.