Total outbound tourism between January and December 2020 amounted to 196,506, a decrease of 510,290 from the previous year, equivalent to 72.2 percent. Figures by the National Statistics Office show that just under 45 percent of trips were for holiday purposes while 37.4 percent were for visiting relatives and friends.
Four in ten trips during 2020 was for seven nights or more while a third of outbound tourists spent between one to three nights away.
Total expenditure by tourists, including accommodation, amounted to €139.6 million – a decrease of 77.0 percent from the previous year. The average expenditure per capita fell to €711 from €858 in 2019 and €844 in 2018.
In the fourth quarter, outbound tourism dropped by 85 percent compared with the same period the year before. A total 29,080 tourist trips left Malta between October and December, over 18,600 of which were for holiday purposes.
Six in ten outbound tourists were aged between 25 and 44 years. The age group experienced the biggest year-on-year decline in volume, falling by more than 75,000 from 2019; however, the decrease of 81.0 percent over that time was the smallest among all age groups. The sharpest drop, percentagewise, was observed in the 65+ age group, where the 1,383 outbound trips represented a 90.8 percent decline from 2019.
Almost three-fourths of destinations this quarter were within the EU, predominantly in euro area countries. There were 7,642 trips to non-EU destination, a third of which to the UK.
