Tourist expenditure for January to October up 68% compared to 2020

Tourists visiting Malta collectively spent €723.3 million from January to October this year, an increase of 68.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2020, according to figures released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

On average, each tourist spent €945, up from €680 in the previous period, mainly due to the longer length of stays.

In October, 163,573 people visited Malta for holiday purposes, while 9,199 people visited for business. The majority of these - 28.8 per cent - came from Italy, France and Germany.

The largest share of guest nights - 83 per cent - was spent in rental accommodation establishments, while the average length of stay was 7.6 nights.

The NSO said the figures should be interpreted in the context of the pandemic, which decimated the tourism industry in the first half of 2020. Between January and October 2019, tourists collectively spent almost €2 billion.