Malta trails behind Cyprus in 'extended' May-October high tourist season

Cyprus had 11% of collective nights in October alone, and 10% in May, while the bulk rested in its traditional June-September high tourist season.

Malta on the other hand had 8.4% of its nights in May, and 9.4% of its nights in October – the second highest in Europe – but even Germany had 9.3% of its total nights in October alone.

In theEU27, a clear seasonal influence on the number of nights spent in hotels and other collective tourism establishments can be observed. As would be expected, the third quarter of the year is the high season and accounted for 43% of the 2.2 billion nights spent in theEU27 in 2009, followed by the second quarter with 26% of all nights spent, while the first quarter (15%) and the fourth quarter (16%) can be considered as the low season.

On the basis of the monthly data, three different groups of Member States can be distinguished: those in which the highest share of all nights spent in collective tourism accommodation in that country was recorded in July, those which had the peak month in August and those which showed no significant difference between July and August.

Among the Member States having a distinct peak in July, the highest monthly shares were found in the Nordic countries ofDenmark (24% of all nights spent in July) andSweden (22%), followed byEstonia (16%) andFinland (15%). The Member States with August as the clear peak month were predominantly southern European countries, with the highest shares found inFrance (23% of all nights spent),Greece andItaly (both 22%) andPortugal (18%). The third group, which has a difference of 1% or less between July and August, contains twelve Member States.

Among the Member States,onlyAustria had a second peak of nights spent in the winter months in 2009. Nights spent in the first quarter of the year (32% of all nights) were nearly equal to the third quarter (33%). To a lesser extent a second high season in winter can also be observed inFinland (22%) andSlovakia (21%).