There were at least 196 massage parlours in Malta and Gozo, and that from December 2016 there was no longer any need for a licence to operate such an establishment, Parliament was told.

This information was tabled by Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, Chris Cardona, in response to a question posed by Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo on the matter. Vassallo asked for the number of massage parlours in several localities across the Maltese Islands in 2015, 2016, 2017 and up to May 2018.

The statistics provided by Cardona, which stop at December 2016, show that the highest concentration of massage parlours can be found in the St Julian’s and Sliema area, where one could find 61 of these establishments.

Localities such as Mosta and Birkirkara also registered a high number of massage parlours, with 33 and 27 outlets respectively.  Naxxar is noted to have had 14 outlets registered within it, while Paola had 12, San Gwann had 10, Rabat had 7, Tarxien had 4 and Valletta had 3.  The island of Gozo meanwhile had 25 registered massage parlours across all localities.

The total of 196 registered outlets in 2016 is a slight increase on numbers relating to the previous year; the information that Cardona presented shows that there were 188 registered massage parlours across the above localities in 2015.

The document tabled by Cardona also states that it is possible that this statistic is somewhat innaccurate, due to the possibility that certain outlets would have closed down but not cancelled their license.

While Vassallo had also asked for the numbers relating to 2017 and 2018, the document states that this was not possible, as after December 2016 there was no longer any need for a licence to operate such an establishment.