Inbound tourism jumps 11% in December

The volume of total inbound visitors grew by 11%, reaching 122,759, in December 2018, as compared to the same month a year earlier, Malta’s National Statistics Office (NSO) reported earlier today.

Holiday tourism still leads the way with 105,766 inbound tourist trips, while 10,332 trips were undertaken for business purposes. Incoming tourists arriving from other EU member states increased by 8.9%, reaching 101,792 in December 2018, as compared to the same month the preceding year.

In December, tourists spent a total of €78.3m, which figure slightly increase by 1.1% as compared to the same month in 2017. Some 40.1% of the inbound tourists were aged 25-44, and 33.5% were aged 45-65.

Tourists arriving in Malta spent 10.1% more nights in December, as compared to the same month in 2017, totalling 870,538, with 49.3% spending the nights at collective accommodation establishments, according to data by the NSO.

Last year, inbound tourism trips saw an overall increase of 14.3%, reaching nearly 2.6 million, as compared to the preceding year. Total nights spent by tourists increased by 12.5% up to 18.6 million nights. Tourists arriving in the Maltese archipelago spent an estimated €2.1bn, an 8% growth as compared to the previous year. However, per capita, total expenditure dropped by 5.5% to €809, according to NSO statistics.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.