Tourism expenditure grows by 6.9 per cent

- business travel to Malta on the increase

Over the first nine months of the year, total expenditure by tourists rose by Lm23 million, or 6.9 per cent, to Lm355.5 million. As a result, per capita expenditure increased to Lm179.6 from Lm175.1 over the first nine months of 2002.
Over the period, expenditure on package tours to the Maltese Islands was estimated at Lm178.4 million - an increase of Lm 4.9 million or 2.9 per cent over last year.
Non-package tourists, meanwhile, spent Lm34.4 million on airfares and Lm26.8 million on accommodation – effectively increasing total expenditure on non-package travel by approximately Lm6 million, or 10.8 per cent.
Other expenditure accruing to both package and non-package tourists increased by Lm11.9 million to Lm115.9 million from Lm104 million in the same period last year.
However, the National Statistics Office, which released the data yesterday, emphasises that tourism expenditure cannot be equated to tourism earnings to the local economy.
Over the same nine-month period tourist departures increased by two per cent over the same period last year and reached 872,324. In the comparable period last year tourists departures by air reached 855,081. Around 42.4 per cent of the tourists departing during the period was made up of British tourists who increased by 4.9 per cent over the same period last year. Other markets recording increases in tourist departures included the Austrian, the Belgian, the Danish, the U.S. and the Swedish markets.
The German market, which accounted for approximately 11per cent of all tourist departures during the period under review, declined by 16,030 tourists or 14.3 per cent. Other declining markets included the French, the Libyan and the Russian markets.
According to yesterday’s statistical release, some 80.6 per cent of all departing tourists fell within the 25 to 65+ age group, with the highest proportion, or 35.2 per cent, lying within the 25 to 44 age group.
In the period under review, holiday tourists accounted for 83.9 per cent of all tourists while business tourists accounted for 7.5 per cent. This shows an improvement in business travel to Malta when compared to the same period last year, when business tourists accounted for 5.1 per cent of all tourist departures.
It is estimated that during the January-September period, the number of nights spent in the Malta by tourists departing by air amounted to a total of 9,023,089, an increase of 9.2 per cent over the same period last year. The number of nights spent in hotel accommodation establishments accounted for 57per cent of the latter total nights spent. In the period under review, a total of 584,008 tourists or 66.9 per cent of all tourists stayed in hotels; a drop of 1.7 per cent over the previous year. The number of tourists opting for non-hotel accommodation rose by 27,374 or 10.5 per cent over the same period last year. As a result, the number of non-hotel nights increased by 804,750 or 26.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number of tourists on a package tour accounted for 73per cent or 637,174 of all tourists departing from Malta by air - a drop of 4.3 per cent when compared to the same period last year.
The number of tourists departing by air during September was estimated at 118,472 tourists; a 3.5 per cent decline over the same month last year.
Tourists departing to the United Kingdom accounted for 47per cent of all tourist departures and increased by 10.7 per cent over the same month last year. Other markets recording increases in tourist departures included the Swedish, Belgian, Danish and U.S. markets.
On the other hand, departing German tourists accounted for 10per cent of all tourist departures and declined by 36.6 per cent while the French market, which accounted for 6per cent went down by 24.7 per cent. Departing Italian tourists declined by 16.7 per cent and accounted for 5.5 per cent of the total. Other drops in tourist departures were recorded from amongst others the Russian, Libyan and Swiss markets.