1 comment.Inbound tourists down by 9.2% in July and 12.8% overall
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Tourstat survey data indicates that inbound tourists in July 2009 were estimated at 135,783, a drop of 9.2 per cent when compared to the corresponding month in 2008. Total nights spent decreased by 8.0 per cent.
Results show that the majority of tourists, or 98.2 per cent, came to Malta by air. Furthermore, an estimated 113,494 tourists came on holiday, the majority from EU Member States, while an additional 6,792 visited for business purposes.
Meanwhile, total nights spent in private accommodation decreased by 9.8 per cent, and guest nights in collective accommodation registered a drop of 7.1 per cent. Overall, the average length of stay is calculated at 9.7 nights, practically unchanged when compared to 2008 levels.
January-July 2009
Inbound tourists for this period are estimated at 633,651, a decline of 12.8 per cent over the corresponding period in 2008. In absolute terms, the change is primarily attributable to a decrease in holiday visits, mainly from the British, German and Scandinavian markets. On the other hand, increases were recorded in the Italian, Libyan and Swiss markets.
88.7 per cent of all inbound visits comprised tourists coming from EU Member States. During the period under review, the majority of inbound tourists chose non-package travel, while the demand for package trips decreased by 12.4 per cent. The largest proportion of inbound passengers were between 45 and 64 years old followed by those in the 25-44 age bracket. Together, these two categories make up 73.7 per cent of total tourists.
Total nights during the reference period decreased by 12.2 per cent when compared to 2008 levels. Nights spent in private accommodation decreased by 4.9 per cent, while guest nights in collective accommodation decreased by 14.8 per cent. The average length of stay is calculated at 8.1 nights, at par with the 2008 estimate.
During the period under review, total tourist expenditure is estimated at €478.1 million, down by 13.4 per cent when compared to 2008. Decreases were recorded throughout all expenditure categories.
The survey results indicate that per capita total expenditure is estimated at €770, up by 0.3 per cent in comparison with 2008.
My family and I have been taking our holidays in Gozo now for five years. This year was a risk for us as Stirling is performing so badly against the Euro but we were prepared to give it another try because we love Gozo so much. However, we were shocked to find that many prices, particularly in restaurants, had been increased thus compounding our problem.
Furthermore with so many building schemes ‘on hold’ presumably through lack of funding we were again astonished to have our holiday ruined by the commencement of new building schemes.
Surely, with the vital Gozo tourist industry being so badly affected by the present downturn efforts should be made to encourage visitors: Unfortunately and quite sadly we are no longer in a position to recommend Gozo as the welcoming, and ‘good value’ holiday destination we used to know.