Tourists surpass 2.3 million mark in just 10 months

The more than 2.3 million tourists who came to Malta in the first 10 months spent an estimated €1.9 billion, figures out today show.

The National Statistics Office said that the number of tourists between January and October increased by 15% when compared to the same period last year.

The expenditure was almost 9% higher that that recorded in 2017.

The NSO said that total nights spent by inbound tourists went up by almost 13%, reaching 16.6 million nights.

Almost two million tourists came from EU countries while 351,375 visited from outside the EU. First-time tourists accounted for 1.7 million arrivals.

Tourists in number Jan-Oct 2018 (NSO)

Total arrivals: 2,334,159

From EU countries: 1,950,885

Non-EU countries: 351,375

Package tours: 793,518

Non-package: 1,508,742

Purpose of visit

Holiday: 2,040,231

Business and professional: 149,689

Other, including educational, religious and health: 112,340