Malta takes hardest knock of all in last four months of 2008

Malta had the worst drop in tourism figures in the EU during the last trimester of 2008, according to statistics released by Eurostat.

The figures show that the number of nights tourists spent in hotels and similar establishments in Malta between September and December dropped by 8.7 per cent compared to the same period of 2007.

Similar significant decreases, although to a lesser extent, were seen in Ireland (-7.5 per cent) and Cyprus (-6.9 per cent). The EU average drop was of 3.2 per cent.

Although in the last four months of 2008, Malta's hotels were less busy than the year before, the situation was not much better in the other EU member states, which nearly all saw a drop with the exceptions of the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

In line with statistics compiled by the local statistics office, Eurostat said Malta's first trimester was very good, registering a 5.6 per cent increase in hotel bed nights, one of the best results in the 27 member states. However trouble started brewing by May when Malta suffered a decrease of 1.5 per cent.

Overall in 2008, the number of nights spent in hotels and similar establishments in Malta by non-residents reached 7.5 million, a decrease of 1.5 per cent on 2007 and slightly more than the EU average of -1.1 per cent.

Eurostat said that the number of nights spent in hotels in 2008 grew in 14 and fell in 12 member states. The highest increases were recorded in Slovakia (7.7 per cent), Poland (4.7 per cent) and Latvia (4.6 per cent).

On the other hand the largest decreases were registered in Cyprus (-4.8 per cent), Greece (-4.6 per cent) and the Netherlands (-4.1 per cent).