Maltese nationals third most likely to take holidays abroad

Maltese nationals are the third most likely Europeans to take their holidays abroad rather than at home, according to data released by Eurostat.

The figures showed that 68% of Maltese nationals take their holidays abroad, with Belgium registering at 80% and Luxembourg at 98%.   

Maltese nationals are also the most likely to travel by aeroplane, with 63%, far ahead of Cyprus at 49%, Ireland at 43% and Luxembourg at 42%

Travelling by boat is also fairly popular with Maltese nationals, who registered at 37%, with Greece registering in at 17% and Romania and Croatia both registering at 19%.

In 2017, EU residents made 1.3 billion trips with overnight stays that amounted to almost 6.4 billion nights. The average trip length was five nights. When compared with 2016, the number of tourism trips by EU residents increased by 4%.

73% of the trips were spent within the country of residence, while 27% were spent aboard, of which 21% to other EU countries and 6% to destinations outside the EU.

The most common means of transport for trips were by car, registering at 64% followed by aeroplanes 17%, trains 11%, buses 6% and water vessels 2%. Aeroplanes served as the main means of transport for over half of outbound trips with 56%, while for domestic trips EU residents travelled mainly by car with 76% followed by rail with 13%. 

Most of the travel by air was for personal reasons with 82%, while the remaining 18% of air travel was for professional purposes.