Sharp decline in February tourism

Tourist departures by air in February were estimated at 45,053, a drop of 11.5 per cent when compared to the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

Sea departures were estimated at 84 tourists. As a result, total tourist departures amounted to 45,137.

January tourism had increased by nearly eight per cent over the same month last year, which had prompted Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech to say it was a sign that the sector was recovering.

Contacted by The Times yesterday to comment on the 11.5 per cent decline last month, Dr Zammit Dimech said it was mainly due to seasonal factors such as this year's early Easter.

"The month of February was quite close to Easter so many people would have decided to postpone their holidays until Easter," he said.

The figures of passenger movements at the airport for March were very encouraging, he said, pointing out that the first three weeks of March showed an increase of 6.77 per cent over the same period last year.

"This normally reflects an increase in tourist departures."

In February, tourists departing by air and having their residence in United Kingdom comprised 49.9 per cent of the market, a decrease of 10.2 per cent when compared to the same month last year. Departing tourists residing in France accounted for 6.5 per cent of the market, decreasing by 23.7 per cent.

Other drops in tourists departing from Malta included those resident in Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Libya and the USA. On the other hand, an increase of 4.9 per cent was recorded in departing tourists with Germany as their country of residence. These accounted for 12.2 per cent of the market.

Increases in tourists departing by air were also recorded from Denmark, Russia and a group of "other" markets.

In the period under review, holiday tourists accounted for 80.7 per cent of the market while 11.9 per cent were business tourists. When compared to the same period last year, holiday tourists declined by 7.1 per cent and business tourists declined by 22.7 per cent.

During January and February tourist departures by air reached 97,323, a decline of 2.4 per cent over the same period last year.

In the same two months, the number of nights spent by tourists departing by air was 1,014,102, a drop of 4.8 per cent over the same period in 2004. The number of nights spent in hotel accommodation establishments increased by seven per cent and accounted for 73.8 per cent of the total nights spent.

Expenditure on package tours for visits to the Maltese islands was estimated at Lm15.6 million, a decrease of Lm0.2 million or 1.1 per cent when compared to last year. Non-package tourists spent Lm4.2 million on airfares and Lm1.9 million on accommodation.

This means a decrease in total expenditure on non-package travel was recorded, amounting to about Lm1.4 million or 19.2 per cent.

Other expenditure from both package and non-package tourists altogether decreased by Lm0.6 million in January-February 2005 over the same period in 2004.

As a result, total expenditure decreased by Lm2.2 million or 6.3 per cent. Per capita tourist expenditure in January-February dropped from Lm160.2 to Lm157.2 over the same period in 2004.