The Covid-19 pandemic meant that compared to last year, there was an 84% decrease in inbound tourists to the Maltese Islands during July, with an estimated 48,743 tourists, the National Statistics Office said today.

44,557 inbound tourist trips were undertaken for holiday purposes, while a further 2,965 were made for business purposes, the NSO said.

Inbound tourists coming from Italy were the most popular, with a share of 25.6% of the total inbound tourists.

Total nights spent went down by 75.3% when compared to July 2019, amounting to 596,139 nights, the NSO said. The largest share of guest nights (47.3%) was spent in non-rented accommodation establishments.

The NSO noted that compared to last year, the average length of stay increased by 4.3 nights to stand at 12.2 nights. “It should be kept in mind that part of this increase is attributable to visitors who had to lengthen their stay in this country due to Covid-19 restrictions.”

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €33.8 million, a decrease of 88.1% over the corresponding month in 2019.

The NSO said that inbound tourist trips for the first seven months of 2020 amounted to 418,959, a decrease of 72.3% over the same period in 2019.

Total nights spent by inbound tourists surpassed the 2.8 million nights, however, it was a drop of 72.4% when compared to the same period of last year.

Total tourism expenditure reached almost €258.4 million, 77.9% less than that recorded during the same period in 2019, the NSO said.

Total expenditure per capita during this period stood at €617, a decrease of 20.2% when compared to last year.

Photo by Alain Salvary

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