A total of 9,151 tourists visited Malta during the month of February, statistics published by the National Statistics Office on Monday show.

5,564 of those travelled to Malta on holiday, while 2,281 travelled to the country on a business or professional trip.  The remaining 1,306 travelled to Malta for other reasons, such as educational, religious, and health tourism.

The overall figure is a 93.7% decrease when compared to February last year, which was the last month before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in Malta and wreaked havoc on the tourism industry.

7,126 of those who arrived in Malta travelled to the country by air – a whopping 95% less than the number of people who flew into the country in 2020.

2,025 meanwhile arrived by sea – a figure which is actually not much less than the 2,468 who arrived by sea in the same month in 2020.

Most inbound tourists were aged between 25 and 44 years (48.8%), followed by those within the 45-64 age bracket (31.8%).

A general increase in the average length of stay was recorded – with the average length of stay being 12.4 nights – over double the 5.8-night average of February 2020.

Total nights spent went down by 86.7% when compared to February 2020, totalling to 113,297 nights. The largest share of guest nights (54.0%) was spent in rented accommodation establishments.

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €8.4 million, a decrease of 90.4% over the corresponding month in 2020. The largest share of inbound tourists amounted to 4,212 Italian residents, equivalent to 46.0% of all inbound tourists.