Tourist arrivals in December increased by almost 18 per cent compared to the same month in 2018, official figures issued on Wednesday show.

The National Statistics Office said arrivals reached 144,706, an increase of 17.9 per cent when compared to the corresponding month in 2018.

123,721 trips were for holiday purposes, while a further 14,416 were for business purposes. Inbound tourists from non-EU member states went up by 23.4 per cent when compared to the same period in 2018.

Most tourists were aged between 25 and 44 years (41.1 per cent), followed by those within the 45-64 age bracket (32.4 per cent).

Total nights spent went up by 15.1 per cent when compared to December 2018, surpassing one million nights.

The largest share of guest nights (47.1 per cent) was spent in hotels.

Tourist spending up by 25%

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €98.3 million, an increase of 25.4 per cent over the corresponding month in 2018.

2019 Round-up

In 2019, inbound tourist trips totalled nearly 2.8 million, an increase of 5.9 per cent over 2018. Total nights spent by inbound tourists went up by 4.1 per cent, surpassing 19.3 million nights.

Total tourism expenditure was estimated at €2.2 billion, 5.7 per cent higher than that recorded in 2018. Total expenditure per capita stood at €807, a decrease of 0.2 per cent when compared to 2018