Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism Ian Borg told stakeholders at the Malta Hotels & Restaurants Association’s (MHRA) Q4 Quarterly Performance Review Seminar that Malta will continue to be promoted as a “world-class destination,” however, the country “must work to prevent over-tourism.”

After analysing some general year-on-year tourism results, Minister Borg said that “as tourism grows, so do challenges” and that the industry must prevent over-tourism to ensure long-term stability.

Borg referenced strategies on visitor flow markets, strengthening cybersecurity, and targeting source markets as strategic keys the country could follow to heed into this desired direction.

He added that labour shortages continue to pose challenges and the only way the sector can sustain sustainable growth is by working on workforce retention strategies and seeing how it can attract top talent in hospitality.

During the fourth quarters (Q4) of 2023 and 2024, hotel occupancy rates saw a general increase. Year-on-year, the YTD levels reached in 2024 were on par with previous years.

Occupancy levels in Q4 for five-star hotels reached 65.7%, which is an improvement of 1.1% from Q4 2023.

Four-star hotels observed the opposite trend, registering occupancy levels of 78% in Q4 2024, down 2.1% from the previous year’s final three months. Despite this, the general occupancy rate for four-star hotels throughout the entire calendar year remained on par with 2023 levels of about 82% (slight decrease in YTD comparison – from 82.6% to 82.0%).

Three-star hotels observed the greatest improvement in Q4 occupancy rates between 2023 and 2024. These establishments witnessed a 4.4% increase as they shot up from 76.8% occupancy in Q4 2023 to 81.2% occupancy in Q4 2024.

Partly due to inflation, Average Daily Rates (ADR) increased across the board. The ADR of five-star hotels throughout Q4 went up from €188.60 in 2023 to €203.90 in 2024 – an improvement of 8.1% on average. For the year, 2024 ADR was just 3.7% better than 2023 levels.

For four-star establishments, the difference in ADR was a boost of €9.70 per night – an 11.7% increase (from €82.6 ADR to €92.3 ADR). YTD levels of this category also rocketed for these establishments, shooting up by 8.4% from €100.2 ADR to €108.6 ADR.

Three-star providers also surpassed the ADRs recorded in 2023 by 6.6% and 7.5% at Q4 and YTD level respectively. During Q4, the ADR for three-star establishments went up from averages of €77.80 to €83.60.

Establishments in Sliema and St. Julian’s registered higher occupancy rates and higher ADRs than others outside this region.

Five-star hotels registered a gross profit (GOP) margin of 35.1%. MHRA President Tony Zahra said he was greatly satisfied with the GOP margins recorded for five-star and four-star hotels.

These statistics are accompanied by the country’s “record-breaking” tourism performance of 2024. During the past calendar year, the Maltese islands attracted 3.56 million visitors – an improvement of 19.5% (or approximately 500,000 inbound tourists) to 2023.

Labour Party MEP Daniel Attard, who is on the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism, told stakeholders that Malta is presently at a crossroads, and requires more strategic alignment within this sector.

Attard argued that with policies pushing for “quality over quantity,” the tourism industry continues to drive in favour of mass tourism, and that without strategic alignment, “we risk contradicting ourselves.” He also stated that the country cannot continue sending out “mixed messages” while remaining homed in on volume production.

“We are increasing by capacity, by numbers, through volume,” he said, “These are not bad things, but they do not align with the higher vision of the tourism sector.

The Maltese MEP advocated that Malta provides a five-star experience to its tourists, even outside hotel walls. Henceforth, he called for the Maltese islands to grow sustainably and in a direction where businesses provide a first-class experience at every level.

The importance of growing sustainably was also deemed to be “imperative” by MTA chairman Charles Mangion, who went as far to say that this is no longer an option, but the only direction we must seek.

MHRA President Tony Zahra was pleased that “Malta had a good year” in 2024.

Remarking that Monday is UN Global Tourism Resilience Day, he stated that for the local tourism industry to grow, stakeholders must ensure that it remains resilient. As an important segment of the Maltese economy, Zahra said that it is important for the tourism and hospitality sectors to remain resolute in order to pay people’s pensions.

He noted that out of €3.5 billion, through the multiplier effect, around €1.5 billion from this industry goes to government coffers.

During his speech, Zahra pointed a statement towards the CEO of the Malta Tourism Authority, Carlo Micallef. He said that Micallef and the MTA must work hard over the coming future to attract higher-spending tourists.

“It is through them that we can make our industry more resilient, because there is always someone who can provide the same service cheaper than you. So, we have to do it better. If we do it better, we can have better revenue,” Zahra said.