More tourists, shorter stays

The number of departing tourists last year reached 1,157,682, according to the tourism statistics unit of the National Statistics Office.

The NSO said yesterday that departing tourists by air were estimated at 1,127,407 - an increase of 3.5 per cent over 2003.

Of the total tourist departures by air, 86.9 per cent flew in from the 25 EU member countries - a 2.7 per cent increase over 2003.

On the other hand, departing tourists by sea amounted to 2.6 per cent of the total tourist departures and have increased by 3.9 per cent over 2003.

Foreign cruise passengers who either landed, embarked, or were in transit reached 284,952 during 2004 - a decline of 25.7 per cent when compared to 2003.

Tourists departing by air spent 10,973,396 nights during the year under review - a decrease of 1.3 per cent when compared to the previous year. The average length of stay in 2004 was of 9.7 nights, meaning a decline of 0.5 nights when compared with 2003, when the average length of stay was 10.2 nights.

The NSO said the highest average length of stay last year was in December and stood at 11.4 nights, followed by July, August and September at 10.8, 10.6 and 9.8 nights respectively. February also had a high average length of stay at 10.8 nights.

During 2004, the total tourist expenditure of those departing by air approximated Lm432.3 million - an increase of 0.6 per cent when compared to 2003.

In the first 10 months of last year, the highest net use of bed places was during July, August and September at 74.9 per cent, 84.4 per cent and 67.8 per cent respectively, marking an increase in occupancy levels for August and September when compared to the previous year, the NSO said.