Tourist arrivals in August grew by 6.7 per cent from August last year and reached an estimated 338,758, the National Statistics Office said.

It said 313,506 inbound trips were carried out for holiday purposes, while a further 9,656 were undertaken for business.

Tourists from non-EU countries went up by 8.3 per cent when compared to the corresponding month in 2018. Most inbound tourists were aged between 25 and 44 (40.6 per cent), followed by those within the 0-24 age bracket (33.3 per cent).

Total nights spent went up by 5.8 per cent when compared to August 2018, reaching nearly 2.9 million nights.

The largest share of guest nights (45.7 per cent) was spent in hotels.

Total tourist expenditure was estimated at €329.6 million, an increase of 2.8 per cent over the corresponding month in 2018.

January-August 2019

Tourist arrivals in the first eight months of the year reached 1,848,935 an increase of 4.7 per cent over the same period in 2018.

Total nights spent by inbound tourists went up by 3.0 per cent, reaching nearly 13.2 million nights.

Tourist expenditure was estimated at almost €1.5 billion, 3.9 per cent higher than that recorded for 2018. Total expenditure per capita stood at €810, a decrease of 0.9 per cent when compared to 2018.