More than 75,000 tourists arrived in Malta in December - a huge increase on the same month the previous year but still half of pre-pandemic levels.

The country's tourism businesses have been hit hard since COVID-19 struck in March 2020 and the industry has been among the worst affected in the EU. 

Malta recorded record numbers of COVID-19 cases in December and many people's travel plans across the EU were also impacted by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. 

Tourist arrivals in December totalled 75,738, up sharply from 12,940 in December 2020. In December 2019, Malta attracted 144,706 tourists.

While traditionally the UK is Malta's largest tourism market, that was not the case in December with French, German and Italian tourists comprising 36.6 per cent of the total.

The largest share of tourists were aged between 25-44 (41.4 per cent), followed by those aged 45-64 (28.8 per cent).

Some 775,189 nights were spent in Malta by visitors in December, the NSO said.

The vast majority, 63,609 came on holiday while 7,140 tourists visited on business.

Most people spent their stay in rented accommodation establishments, accounting for 76.7 per cent of guest nights. The average length of stay stood at 10.2 nights and spent €70.8 per night.

Total tourist expenditure reached almost €55.0 million.

The NSO also issued whole year 2021 figures, showing that 968,136 visitors came to Malta, an increase of 47% over 2020, a year when flights were suspended for four months due to COVID-19.

Total nights spent by inbound tourists increased by 60.5 per cent, surpassing 8.3 million nights.

Total expenditure was estimated at €870.7 million, an increase of 91.3 per cent when compared to the previous year. Total expenditure per capita stood at €899, increasing from €691 in 2020.