Tourists continued to stay away from the Maltese islands in the final three months of 2020 - but accommodation providers in Malta saw a much larger drop in guest numbers than their counterparts in Gozo and Comino.

The number of guests staying in Malta dropped by 75.6 per cent in the last quarter of the year, compared to the same period in 2019, the National Statistics Office said.

In Gozo and Comino, the numbers were down too - but by much lower margins. Accommodation providers reported a 38.3 per cent drop in guest numbers.

The discrepancy could be down to more people 'staycationing' in Gozo. Long queues were reported at the ferry terminal on December 30 as people chose to spend New Year on the sister island.

Although the airport was open to tourists, arrival figures remained low with a large number of countries on Malta's amber list, which obliges arrivals to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

Also in December, flights from the UK were banned, except for arrivals of Maltese nationals and residents due to emergence of a highly-transmissible variant in the country. 

The NSO said that total guests in collective accommodation establishments numbered 118,482, while total nights stood at 459,381. The largest share of guest nights was reported in four-star hotels with 39.6 per cent of the total.

As well as there being fewer guests, people stayed for shorter periods.

The average length of stay in collective accommodation establishments dropped from 3.9 nights from 4.5 nights registered during the same quarter of 2019.

Total guests in 2020 amounted to 705,337, a decrease of 65.1 per cent  over the same period in 2019.

Total nights spent went down by 70.3 per cent, surpassing 2.9 million. The net use of bed-places declined by 40.3 percentage points to 25.4 per cent.