Slightly more than 88,000 Maltese went abroad between January and March, mostly on holiday.

The National Statistics Office said the 88,196 Maltese who went abroad spent a total of 654,094 nights abroad in total.

The most popular destination was Italy, with 32,369 trips, followed by the UK with 22,218.

COVID-19 has disrupted travel worldwide in the past two years but it has now started to regain ground. Slightly less than 115,600 tourists had gone abroad in the same period in 2020, a number that was down to just over 18,700 in the same period last year.

A total of 42,035 outbound trips - just over 47 per cent of the total - were undertaken for holiday purposes, followed by 28,498 trips for visiting friends and relatives.

Most outbound tourists - 54.6% - were aged between 25 and 44 years, followed by those within the 45-64 age bracket (24.9 per cent). The average length of stay of total outbound tourists stood at 7.4 nights. 

Total expenditure by outbound tourists between January and March reached €69 million, equivalent to an average of €782 per person.