Inbound Tourism September 2017
The gross income generated from tourism during September 2017 was estimated to have reached 231.6 million Euros, equivalent to a 16.7% increase over the same month last year. September 2017 witnessed the arrival of 235,881 tourists, 28,960 (or 14%) more than September 2016. 208,759 of these tourists visited Malta for holiday purposes, 13,419 for business purposes, 13,702 for other reasons (including educational, health, and religious tourism).
Collectively they spent 1,848,598 nights in Malta, an increase of 214,443 (or 13.1%) over the corresponding month of last year. Collective accommodation (Hotels, Guest houses, etc..) hosted 958,184 of these guest nights, which makes up 51.8% of the total, and marks a 4.7% increase compared to September 2016. On the other hand 87,206 tourists decided to spend their 890,414 guest nights in private accommodation.
The latter option, during September 2017, managed to attract 16,220 more tourists, resulting in 171,312 more guest nights, than it did last year. The number of tourists opting for private accommodation increased by 22.9%, compared to a 9.4% increase of those choosing the more traditional route, yielding an increase of 23.6% in guest nights. This confirms a trend whereby an increasing amount of travellers (presumably the younger ones) are opting to rent a private residence, mostly through internet portals like Airbnb, as this market is growing at a faster pace than the tradition Hotels and other collective accommodation one.
A further 5,9447 visited Malta for an overnight stay as part of their Cruise and are not included in the statistics above.
January to September 2017
Total tourism expenditure from January to September 2017 surpassed €1.5 billion, a 13.6% increase over that recorded for 2016. Inbound tourist trips reached 1,761,973, which is 246,553 tourists more than the same period last year – a 16.3% increase. Total nights spent by inbound tourists went up by 10.8%, surpassing 13.0 million nights.