Sharp drop in Maltese stays at collective establishments

The figures released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) refer to the month of February. The average length of stay for residents edged up to 2.0 nights.

During the month under review, tourist arrivals and nights spent in collective accommodation establishments stood at 80,277 and 412,410 respectively, the NSO said.

The average length of stay was calculated at 5.1 nights.

An NSO statement explained that non-resident arrivals stood at 65,504, up by 33.1 per cent when compared to the corresponding month last year, while non-resident nights increased by 13.6 per cent to 382,166.

There was a drop of one night in the average length of stay, which stood at 5.8 nights for the month under review.

On average, all types of collective accommodation establishments recorded increases in both arrivals and nights. The overall net occupancy rates in these establishments stood at

43.1 per cent - up by 4.1 percentage points when compared to 2010. Non-resident and resident occupancy rates stood at 39.9 and 3.2 per cent respectively (Tables 5 and 6).

Two-star hotels recorded the largest increase in occupancy rates and stood at 26.8 per cent, while hostels registered decreases.

Total arrivals in Malta during February reached 76,805, 24.2 per cent higher than last year.

Total nights advanced by 12.5 per cent to 404,008, and the average length of stay in Malta stood at

5.3 nights (Table 1). The overall occupancy rate was 43.8 per cent - up by 4.2 percentage points when compared with 2010 levels. Resident arrivals and nights decreased by 1,138 (8.4 per cent) and 842 (3.3 per cent) respectively.

Total arrivals and nights in Gozo and Comino decreased by 16.2 per cent (to 3,472) and 11.4

per cent (to 8,402) respectively. The average length of stay in this region remained almost unchanged when compared to the previous year, and stood at 2.4 nights, while the net occupancy rate decreased by 1.4 percentage points to 24.0 per cent. Resident arrivals and nights in Gozo and Comino decreased when compared with 2010, whereas non-resident arrivals and nights registered slight increases.

Capacity

The overall net supply of bed-places stood at 34,177, of which 32,926 were in Malta while the remaining 1,251 were in Gozo and Comino. With an overall 15,506 bedrooms in Malta and 595 bedrooms in Gozo and Comino, the average number of beds per room stood at 2.1.