Hotels managed to claw back some custom in the third quarter of this year, with those in Gozo doing better, amid the ravaging of the tourism sector caused by COVID-19, official figures issued on Tuesday show.

The airport was gradually opened in July after having been closed in March with the onset of COVID-19, but as holiday travel remained low, hotels, particularly in Gozo, sought Maltese custom.

Total guests in the third quarter amounted to 264,444, spending almost 1.1 million nights.

Hotel guests in Malta numbered 239,964, down by 56.7 per cent over the third quarter of 2019. A decrease of 67.0 per cent was recorded in the number of nights spent. Total guests and nights in Gozo and Comino decreased by 29.6 per cent and 49.2 per cent, to 24,480 and 66,838 respectively.

The biggest share of guest nights was reported in 4-star hotels and 3-star hotels, with 47.9 per cent and 24.3 per cent of the total.

The average length of stay decreased from 5.5 nights in 2019 to 4.1 nights in 2020.

The net use of bed-places stood at 30.0 per cent, down by 53.0 percentage points when compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
On a national level, during September 2020, there were 199 active collective accommodation establishments with a net capacity of 17,599 bedrooms and 40,920 bed-places . 

The average length of stay in Malta decreased by 1.3 nights to 4.3 nights when compared with the same quarter of the previous year. Similarly, in Gozo and Comino the average length of stay decreased by 1.1 nights to 2.7 nights

The net occupancy rate in Malta decreased by 54.4 percentage points, reaching 29.5 per cent, and that in Gozo and Comino decreased by 25.7 percentage points to 40.7 per cent.

January-September 2020

Total guests during the first nine months of 2020 amounted to 586,173, a decrease of 61.9 per cent over the same period in 2019. Total nights spent went down by 67.7 per cent, reaching nearly 2.5 million. The net use of bed-places declined by 38.3 percentage points to 30.4 per cent.