Malta: Hotel nights down by two-thirds from last year

Hotels saw a dip of 55.5 percent in guests in the third quarter this year compared with the same period in 2019. Figures by the National Statistics Office show a total 241,179 hotel visitors between July and September, the smallest Q3 numbers in the three years under review.

One in two guests stayed at four-star hotels while another 46 percent chose accommodation at either five or three-star hotels. Another 23,265 guests stayed at alternative collective accommodation including hostels and guesthouses.

Since the beginning of the year, hotels welcomed a total 538,428 guests, a drop of 62 percent in comparison with the first nine months of 2019. Nearly 280,000 choose to stay at four-star hotels while five and three-star hotels welcomed 243,881 visitors between them. Guests at other collective accommodation numbered 47,744.

The total number of nights at hotels was 1,003,422 in the third quarter, a decrease of 66.5 percent from the previous year. Hotels registered a total of 2,289,255 nights since the start of 2019, a sharp fall from 7,145,247 in the same period last year.