Tourist arrivals in May reached 177,895, an increase of 5.5 per cent compared to the corresponding month of 2014. Excluding the passengers who stayed overnight on board their berthed cruise ship, total inbound tourist trips amounted to 177,203, the National Statistics Office said.

The office last week reported how total arrivals and nights spent in hotels in April 2015 declined by 0.7 and 4.3 per cent respectively when compared to April 2014.

But May performed much better. A total of 153,104 inbound tourist trips were carried out for holiday purposes, while a further 11,160 were undertaken for business purposes, the NSO said.

Inbound tourists from EU Member States went up by 11.3 per cent to 155,306. The largest proportion of inbound tourists were aged between 45 and 64, followed by those within the 25-44 age bracket.

Total nights spent went up by 5.9 per cent when compared to May 2014, reaching 1,215,994 nights. The largest share of guest nights (68.5 per cent) was spent in hotels.

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €149.2 million, an increase of 7.9 per cent over the corresponding month of 2014 .

January-May

Inbound tourist trips from January to May amounted to 579,693, an increase of 5.9 per cent over the same period in 2014. Total nights spent by inbound tourists went up by 4.2 per cent, reaching almost 4.1 million nights.

During January-May, total tourism expenditure was estimated at €460.4 million, 7.2 per cent higher than that recorded for 2014. Total per capita expenditure stood at €794, an increase of 1.1 per cent when compared to 2014 .