The ongoing situation with the Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions has meant that there was once again a drop in inbound visitors for August, with the number estimated at 114,458 – a decrease of 66.2% on last year, the National Statistics Office said today.

A total of 107,908 inbound tourist trips were undertaken for holiday purposes, while a further 2,318 were business trips.

In August it was inbound tourists coming from the UK who were the most popular, with a share of 21.7% of the total.

The NSO noted that total nights spent went down by 62.6%, surpassing 1.0 million nights. The largest share of guest nights (40.5%) was spent in collective accommodation establishments.

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €94.6 million, a decrease of 71.3% over the corresponding month in 2019.

Inbound tourist trips for the first eight months of 2020 amounted to 533,417, a decrease of 71.2% over the same period last year.

Total nights spent by inbound tourists reached nearly 4.0 million, a drop of 70.3% when compared to the same period last year.

Total tourism expenditure reached €353.0 million, the NSO said that this was 76.4% less than that recorded during the same period in 2019.

Total expenditure per capita stood at €662, a decrease of 18.3% when compared to last year.

During the Covid-19 situation, the following tourism-related sequence of events took place in Malta and Gozo:

28-Feb Passengers flying in from Italy, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Iran and South Korea, from 26 February onwards were requested to stay in quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

8-Mar Flights from/to Milan were suspended.

10-Mar Flights from/to Italy were suspended.

10-Mar Last cruise liner call.

11-Mar Flights from/to France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, were suspended.

11-Mar Passengers flying in from France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, were requested to stay in quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

13-Mar All passengers flying in from all destinations were requested to stay in quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

18-Mar Last Virtu’ Ferries service for passengers between Malta and Sicily was operated.

21-Mar All flights from/to all destinations were suspended.

1-Jul Re-opening of Malta International Airport.

The first group of destinations that reopened for travel comprised: Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Poland, Cyprus, Switzerland, Iceland, Slovakia, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Greece and Croatia.

15-Jul Restrictions on all other flight destinations were lifted.

21-Aug First cruise liner call since March 2020.

Photo by Alain Salvary

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