Malta received a total of 50,359 tourists during the month of September, statistics published by the National Statistics Office on Friday show.
This is a decrease of 82.5% when compared to September 2019, the NSO said.
During the month under review, a total of 46,966 inbound tourist trips were undertaken for holiday purposes, while a further 2,074 were made for business purposes.
The vast majority of the tourists – 49,169 of them – arrived in Malta by air, while the remaining 1,190 came by sea, the NSO’s statistics showed.
Most inbound tourists were aged between 25 and 44 years (48.8%), followed by those within the 45-64 age bracket (24.5%).
9,715 of those who came to Malta came on package holidays, while 34,795 of the 50,359 tourists were first-time tourists, meaning that it was their first time visiting Malta.
The average length of stay of the tourists who came to Malta during September was of 9.3 nights – which is incidentally higher than the same statistic in September 2019, where the average was of 7.3 nights.
Inbound tourists coming from Germany were the most popular, with a share of 21.7% of the total inbound tourists.
This is equivalent to 10,949 visitors. 9,375 people meanwhile visited from the United Kingdom, while a further 8,251 visited from France.
When compared to September 2019, total nights spent went down by 77.4 per cent, amounting to 470,732 nights. The largest share of guest nights (41.2 per cent) was spent in collective accommodation establishments.
Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €39.8 million, a decrease of 84.5 per cent over the corresponding month in 2019.