Tourists spent over €300 million in Malta during peak month of August

Total expenditure by tourists visiting Malta in the peak month of August surpassed €316.6 million, figures released by the National Statistics Office show.

The traditionally busiest month of the year in terms of tourist arrivals saw 288,627 arrivals for holiday purposes, 6,925 visitors for business and professional purposes and a further 10,073 visiting the island for ‘other’ purposes, including educational, religious or health tourism. This figure adds up to 305,624 visitors for the month of August, added to which the 5,964 individuals who visited the island as overnight cruise passengers, taking the absolute total up to 311,588 visitors.

The largest share of inbound tourists were aged between 0-24 (39.0 per cent), followed by the 25-44 age bracket (38.6 per cent). Italian, French and German residents made up 42.5 per cent of total inbound tourists.

When compared to 2019, the last full uninterrupted year before the pandemic wreaked havoc on travel and the world economy in general, August 2022 numbers reached 90.8 per cent of those registered pre-COVID.

The highest recovery was observed in the 0-24 age bracket at 106.3 per cent, while the lowest recovery can be observed within the 65+ age bracket at 76.7 per cent.

Of note, the segment of inbound tourists visiting Malta for holiday purposes in August experienced a better recovery, at 92.1 per cent, than that of tourists visiting for business purposes, at 71.7 per cent.

While the NSO did not speculate as to the reasons why, severe flight delays and cancellations because of a shortage of staff at key European airports, as well as a trend towards online meetings since the onset of the pandemic could be reasons as to why fewer people are travelling for business when compared to pre-pandemic times.

January-August 2022

Inbound tourists during the first eight months of 2022 amounted to 1,474,365, while the total nights spent nearly reached 10.8 million nights. Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €1.3 billion. Total expenditure per capita stood at €873, decreasing from €975 in 2021.