September’s inbound visitors were estimated at 287,461, the National Statistics Office said today. This figure was up by 3.0% when compared to the corresponding month last year.

261,696 of these were carried out for holiday purposes, while a further 16,750 were undertaken for business purposes.

There was an increase of 5.6% on 2018 for inbound tourists from EU Member States, the NOS said.

The total nights spent reached almost 2.1 million nights, this was up by 2.1%, compared to September 2018.

The largest share of guest nights (49.5%) was spent in collective accommodation establishments.

It was estimated that total tourist expenditure reached €257.0 million, this was an increase of 5.9% over last year.

Inbound tourist trips for the first nine months of this year amounted to 2,135,425 which was an increase of 4.8% over the same period last year, while the total nights spent went up by 2.9% surpassing 15.2 million nights, the NSO said.

During this same period, the NSO noted that total tourism expenditure was estimated at almost €1.8 billion, 4.2% higher than 2018. Total expenditure per capita stood at €822, a decrease of 0.6 per cent when compared to 2018.

Photograph: Alain Salvary

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