Updated 11.04am

The deadline to use government vouchers has been extended to the end of October, as a quarter of vouchers have not yet been utilised. 

Vouchers were due to expire on September 15 but that deadline has been extended to give people some more time to make use of them, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri said on Saturday morning. 

So far, 74 per cent of vouchers have been used, with 26 per cent, or around €12 million worth of vouchers, still unused. The voucher scheme is costing the government €45 million. 

Vouchers were distributed to all Maltese residents, irrespective of nationality, to encourage spending on hospitality and retail goods and services, as part of the government’s attempt to kickstart the post-pandemic economy. 

Each resident received €100 worth of vouchers. This was the second tranche of vouchers issued by the government. 

Just over 447,500 people received this second set vouchers, although just under 29,500 have not yet collected their set. 

While uptake has been near-universal among Maltese and Gozitans, just 63 per cent of foreign residents had collected their vouchers as of Saturday, statistics presented by the minister showed. 

Schembri was speaking at a press conference in Gozo, alongside Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri. 

Camilleri said it was a very good summer for Gozitan Tourism, with more than one million passenger trips to the island in July and August combined. 

Vouchers: how many, how much and other statistics

• 3.58 million vouchers issued to 447,669 people.
• €44.77m in value in total.
• 74% of vouchers have been used so far. 
• 117,485 people downloaded digital vouchers. 330,184 received physical ones.
• July was the busiest month for voucher use.
• On average, people spent €2.6m in vouchers every week.