Malta: Fewer tourists but longer stays in February

Inbound tourism in February dropped nearly 94 percent compared with the same month last year, with a total of 9,151 visitors. Figures by the National Statistics Office, however, show that the average length of stay more than doubled from 5.8 nights in 2020 to 12.4 nights this year.

Almost nine in every ten visitors were from the EU and 6,940 were from the euro area. Holidaymakers accounted for 61 percent of all tourists while 2,281 travelled for business purposes and 1,306 visited for health, educational, religious, or other reasons.

Tourists in the 24 to 44 age group made half of the total guest population while people aged between 45 and 64 formed the second-biggest group with just over 2.900 travellers.

Unlike the previous two years, repeat tourists outnumbered first-time guests, following a sharp fall in new visitors. There were 4,464 first-time tourists, a decline of 96 percent from 2020, while repeat visitors totalled 4,688.