Last year, the total number of inbound and domestic tourists who visited the Gozo and Comino region amounted to 396,251, the National Statistics Office said today. Domestic tourists accounted for 54.3% of total tourism demand within this region, it said.
There were 215,272 domestic tourists to the Gozo and Comino region, this figure was down by 5.2% on 2018, when it stood at 227,121.
Domestic tourism expenditure in Gozo and Comino region was estimated at almost €35.9 million, a decline of 6.5% over 2018.
The total number of inbound and domestic tourists who visited the Malta region amounted to almost 2.7 million, with inbound tourists accounting for 99.2% of total tourists visiting this region, the NSO said.
Domestic tourists to Gozo and Comino region, who stayed in rented accommodation amounted to 146,944, a decrease of 6.1% over the previous year. The NSO noted that more than half of the domestic stays in rented accommodation (60.4%) were in other rented accommodation establishments, such as farmhouses.
The NSO went on to say that the majority of domestic tourist nights (72.4%) were spent in rented accommodation, of which 70.0% were spent in other rented accommodation. In 2019, nights in collective accommodation decreased by 12.2% when compared to 2018.
Gozo and Comino residents who travelled to Malta region in 2019 as domestic tourists totalled 21,965, an increase of 19.7% over 2018.
The NSO said that more than half (53.7%) of domestic tourism nights by Gozo and Comino residents who travelled to Malta region were spent in rented accommodation. In 2019, domestic tourism expenditure in Malta region was estimated at almost €3.5 million, an increase of 33.9 per cent over 2018.
Last year, the number of inbound tourists in Malta increased by 5.9%, reaching nearly 2.8 million tourists. Single centre destination inbound tourism (inbound tourism with overnight stays in one region only) accounted for the majority of the trips (96.8%). The rest were twin centre destination trips.
The NSO noted that total nights spent by inbound tourists to Malta surpassed 19.3 million, an increase of 4.1% over 2018. Nights spent by single centre inbound tourists accounted for 95.5 per cent of total nights spent in Malta.
The remaining were nights spent on twin centre destination trips. Inbound tourist nights in the Malta region accounted for 94.1 per cent of the total, while the Gozo and Comino region accommodated 5.9% of the total nights.
The total expenditure by inbound tourists to Malta last year surpassed €2.2 billion, an increase of 5.7% over 2018. Expenditure by inbound tourists on single centre destination trips accounted for 96.2% of the total.
Inbound tourists who visited Gozo and Comino region as a single centre destination amounted to 92,715, a decrease of 1.4% over 2018. This accounted for 51.2% of the total inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region.
The NSO said that the majority came from EU Member States (88.7%) with the strongest market being the UK.
It was found that non-package trips accounted for 79.2% of inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region. The single centre package trips to Gozo and Comino region decreased by 10.5% over 2018.
More than half of the single centre inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region, travelled by low-cost airlines (56.9%). Low-cost airlines registered a decline of 3.0% over 2018.
The largest share (48.5%) of single centre tourists to Gozo and Comino region, stayed in other rented accommodation. Nights spent by inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region on single centre trips decreased by 3.4% when compared to the previous year, amounting to 815,554 nights
In 2019, the average length of stay of single centre inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region shortened to 8.8 nights from 9.0 nights in 2018.
The NSO noted that expenditure by inbound tourists to the Gozo and Comino region as single centre destinations was estimated at €76.5 million in 2019, a decrease of 2.3% when compared to previous year.
It said that this decrease was mostly attributed to decreases in package expenditure (11.2%) and in other expenditure, such as shopping (6.7%).
Photo by Alain Salvary