11 - 17 January 2001

Tourist arrivals down by 3,600

The number of tourists in October 2000 declined by 3,630 or 3.2 per cent over the same month the previous year.
Arrivals from the British market were up by 3,474 or 9.1 per cent to 41,848 from 38,374 the previous year. Other increases in arrivals were recorded in the French market and a group of “other” markets.
However, arrivals from the German market dropped by 5,289 to 20,234 from 25,523 a year earlier. Other drops in arrivals were registered in the Libyan market (1,583), Switzerland (782) and Austria (432).
In the first 10 months of 2000, the number of tourist arrivals decreased. It went down from 1,088,908 the year earlier to 1,085,773 or by 3,135.
The Central Office of Statistics said that in the period under review, increases in arrivals were recorded from Russia, Britain, France and Sweden while drops were recorded from Germany and the Netherlands.
In October last year, the number of cruise
passengers was marginally below that in the same month of the previous year, and reached 30,294. In the first 10 months, the number of cruise passengers declined by 20,363 to 155,321 over the previous year.
Also in October, incoming tourists spent 924,489 days in the country, an average of 8.3 days per tourist. In the 10 months to October, tourists spent a total of 9,093,108 days in the country, an average of 8.4 days per tourist.
Although there is a degree of incomparability between the current accommodation data and that of previous years, due to the elimination of the departure cards in January 1999, there is evidence to suggest that the total number of days spent by tourists in Malta in the first 10 months last year declined when compared to the same period in the previous year.
In October, the five-star hotel category registered a 91 per cent occupancy level. This was significantly higher than in the previous months. The other accommodation categories recorded lower occupancy levels.