Tourist arrivals up 16.9% in August 2010 over 2009

Non residential arrivals and nights saw increase in the month of August, though residential arrivals saw a decrease of 12.4% and 10.3% respectively. Length of stay for non-residents increased by 0.6 of a night to 7.1 nights while length of stay of residents remained unchanged at 2.7 nights.

Net occupancy rates of all accommodation establishments stood at 85.1% and increase of 7.6 percentage points compared to last year.

All hotel categories experienced an increase in occupancy rates with the largest increases in two and three star hotels. These were mostly attributable to non-residents with occupancy rates of 82.2% - and increase of 7.9 percentage points over the same period in 2009. Residents occupancy rate decreased slightly and stood at 2.9%.

On a national level the overall supply of beds increased by 323. Slight decreases in Gozo and Comino were compensated for by increases in beds in Malta. On the other hand the number of bedrooms for August dropped by 201 and stood at 18,375.