Regional Tourism: 2025
The National Statistics Office (NSO) has implemented a revision to the weighting methodology used in the National Tourism Survey (NTS). Under the revised methodology, Maltese and foreign residents are calibrated separately, allowing survey estimates to better reflect the composition of the resident population. The updated methodology has been applied from reference year 2023 onwards and, consequently, estimates for 2023 and 2024 have been revised and supersede previously published figures. Users should exercise caution when comparing these estimates with data published prior to the methodological update.
A time series based on the previous methodology covers Maltese nationals only from reference year 2023 onwards. Further information on this reclassification is available in the press information notice published on 10 July 2026.
Overview
In 2025, the total number of inbound and domestic tourists who visited the Gozo and Comino region was 589,343 (Tables 1 and 6). Domestic tourists accounted for 67.4 per cent of total tourism demand within this region. The total number of inbound and domestic tourists who visited the Malta region reached approximately 4.0 million, with inbound tourists accounting for 99.0 per cent of total tourists visiting this region (Chart 1a).
Domestic tourism
During 2025, domestic tourism between regions reached 437,388 total arrivals, an increase of 12.4 per cent when compared to 2024. The majority (90.8 per cent) of these arrivals were Malta residents travelling to Gozo and Comino, totalling 397,322 domestic tourists. Most domestic tourists travelled for holiday purposes (75.7 per cent) with a length of stay between 1 and 3 nights (85.3 per cent) (Table 1). The average length of stay decreased slightly when compared to 2024 from 2.7 to 2.5 (Table 1). Despite this, the total number of domestic tourist nights increased by 5.2 per cent reaching 1,104,321 (Table 3). Total expenditure by domestic tourists was estimated at almost €82.3 million, increasing when compared to the previous year (Table 4). The average expenditure per capita stood at €188.2, an increase of €17.13 over 2024 (Table 5).
Domestic tourism to Gozo and Comino region
The number of domestic tourists visiting the Gozo and Comino region who stayed in rented accommodation amounted to 244,251, an increase of 21.8 per cent compared with 2024. Slightly less than half were in other rented accommodation establishments (46.8 per cent) (Table 2).
In terms of tourist nights, 61.4 per cent were spent in rented accommodation, of which 52.6 per cent were spent in other rented accommodation (Table 3).
Domestic tourism expenditure in the Gozo and Comino region was estimated at €74.7 million.
Domestic tourism to Malta Region
Gozo and Comino residents who travelled to Malta in 2025 as domestic tourists decreased by 6.6 per cent, from 42,882 in 2024 to 40,066 in 2025 (Table 1).
Around half (50.2 per cent) of domestic tourism nights by Gozo and Comino residents who travelled to Malta were spent in non-rented accommodation (Table 3). In 2025, domestic tourism expenditure in Malta was estimated at €7.6 million, an increase over 2024 (Table 4).
Inbound tourism
In 2025, inbound tourists to the Maltese Islands (MALTA) increased by 12.9 per cent, reaching 4,022,310 tourists. Single centre destination inbound tourism trips to one region only with overnight stay (single centre destination tourism) accounted for the majority of the trips (97.6 per cent) (Table 6 and Chart 4).
Total nights spent by inbound tourists to MALTA surpassed 25.4 million, an increase of 11.0 per cent over 2024. Nights spent by single centre inbound tourists accounted for 96.4 per cent of the total nights. The remaining were nights spent on twin centre destination trips. Inbound tourist nights in the Malta region accounted for 95.4 per cent of the total, while the Gozo and Comino region accommodated 4.6 per cent of the total nights (Table 6).
In 2025, total expenditure by inbound tourists to the Maltese Islands surpassed €3.9 billion. Expenditure by inbound tourists on single centre destination trips accounted for 96.9 per cent of the total (Table 12).
Single centre destination trips: Malta region
In 2025, inbound tourists to the Malta region as a single centre destination reached 3,830,289 tourists. Most were aged between 25 and 44 (35.5 per cent) and came from EU Member States (65.7 per cent), with the strongest market being Italy (14.8 per cent). More than half of the single centre inbound tourists (68.7 per cent) travelled by low-cost airlines and 79.5 per cent were first-time tourists (Table 7).
The majority of single centre inbound tourists to the Malta region, stayed in collective accommodation (62.0 per cent). Nights spent by inbound tourists to the Malta region as a single centre destination went up by 11.4 per cent when compared to 2024, surpassing 23.7 million nights (Tables 10 and 11).
Total expenditure by inbound tourists to Malta as a single centre destination was close to €3.7 billion in 2025, an increase of 18.9 per cent compared to the previous year (Table 12).
Single centre destination trips: Gozo and Comino region
Inbound tourists who visited the Gozo and Comino region as a single centre destination amounted to 94,578, an increase of 6.4 per cent compared 2024. The majority came from EU Member States (54.0 per cent), though the United Kingdom was the strongest market when considering single countries (31.0 per cent). Most inbound tourists visiting the Gozo and Comino region as a single centre destination were aged between 45 and 64 (38.7 per cent). Non-package trips accounted for 84.4 per cent of trips and of inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region. More than half of the single centre inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region, travelled by low-cost airlines (62.3 per cent) (Table 8).
In contrast to single centre trips to the Malta region, the largest share of single centre tourists to the Gozo and Comino region stayed in other rented accommodation (44.0 per cent). Nights spent by inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region on single centre trips amounted to 807,511 nights (Tables 10 and 11). In 2025, the average length of stay of single centre inbound tourists to Gozo and Comino region increased from 8.3 nights to 8.5 nights (Table 8).
Expenditure by inbound tourists to the Gozo and Comino region as single centre destination was almost €101.0 million in 2025, an increase of 13.9 percent compared to the previous year (Table 12).
Twin centre destination trips
In 2025, inbound tourists who visited the Malta and Gozo and Comino regions as a twin centre destination trip totalled 97,443. The largest share of twin centre inbound tourists were in the 25-44 age bracket (36.9 per cent). The majority of inbound tourists on twin centre trips were first-time tourists (78.2 per cent) and came from EU Member States (65.6 per cent) with the strongest markets being France (13.0 per cent). The United Kingdom was also a strong market (17.2 per cent). More than half of the twin centre inbound tourists travelled by low-cost airlines (61.7 per cent) (Table 9).
A high proportion of twin centre tourists stayed in rented accommodation (92.8 per cent). Total nights spent by twin centre tourists increased, amounting to 908,784 nights. The majority of inbound twin centre tourist nights, 48.0 per cent, were spent in other rented accommodation, followed by 38.4 per cent in collective accommodation (Tables 10 and 11). In 2025, the average length of stay of inbound tourists visiting both regions stood at 9.3 nights, a decrease of 0.5 nights compared to 2024 (Table 9).
Total expenditure spent by twin centre tourists was estimated at €120.0 million in 2025. All expenditure categories registered significant increases over 2024 (Table 12).
Tables
Tables
The National Statistics Office (NSO) has implemented a revision to the weighting methodology used in the National Tourism Survey (NTS). Under the revised methodology, Maltese and foreign residents are calibrated separately, allowing survey estimates to better reflect the composition of the resident population. The updated methodology has been applied from reference year 2023 onwards and, consequently, estimates for 2023 and 2024 have been revised and supersede previously published figures. Users should exercise caution when comparing these estimates with data published prior to the methodological update.
A time series based on the previous methodology covers Maltese nationals only from reference year 2023 onwards. Further information on this reclassification is available in the press information notice published on 10 July 2026.
Annex Tables
Methodological Notes
1. This release focuses on domestic and inbound tourism overnight stays. Users should be aware that domestic same-day visits and overnight stays within the same region of origin, such as, day-trips to Gozo and Comino region and weekend breaks in Malta region by Malta residents, are not included within the scope of this news release. Domestic tourism excludes individuals aged 0 to 14 years. Regional flows of inbound tourism exclude same-day visits across regions and classify trips into two components: single centre destination and twin centre destination.
2. In 2014, the National Statistics Office has introduced a new tool to measure National Tourism to satisfy the concepts and definitions as outlined by Eurostat. The collection consists of tourism demand data on domestic and outbound trips as required by Regulation (EC) No. 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on tourism statistics. The Regulation aims at giving a complete and comprehensive picture of tourism in Europe and allows the comparability of results with other EU member states. Data is collected via a quarterly Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) survey.
3. Inbound tourism trips are collected from an ongoing frontier national survey known as Tourstat. Tourist air departures are collected through a continuous survey carried out at the departure lounge of the Malta International Airport. A two-stage sampling design is used to collect air passengers. In the first stage, alternate days and nights are selected. In the second stage, within each shift, a sample of passengers is selected systematically. Every crossing air passenger is counted and respondents are selected using a pre-defined interval of 1:20. Tourist sea departures data is supplemented by administrative data provided by ferry operators. Tourstat measures the number of tourist trips carried out during a reference period. ‘Tourist trips’ differs from the ‘number of tourists’ such that the same person can undertake more than one trip during a reference period.
4. The National Statistics Office (NSO) has implemented an enhancement to the weighting methodology used in the National Tourism Survey (NTS). Under the revised methodology, Maltese and foreign residents are calibrated separately, allowing survey estimates to better reflect the composition of the resident population. The revised methodology has been applied from reference year 2023 onwards. Consequently, estimates for 2023 and 2024 have been revised and supersede previously published figures. Users should exercise caution when comparing these estimates with data published prior to the methodological update.
5. Absolute and percentage changes between one survey estimate and another based on less than 1,500 tourists should be treated with caution and are represented in this news release by means of the dash symbol (-).
6. Sea tourist data for the period January 2023 – September 2024 has been revised due to a revision of the figures from the source. This revision is reflected in all of the figures of 2023 and 2024.
7. The monthly passenger departures data published by the Malta International Airport cannot be equated to the number of inbound tourists because the former is inclusive of departing Maltese and transit passengers.
8. Arrivals and nights spent in time-share accommodation are being categorised in ‘Non-rented Accommodation’ instead of ‘Collective Accommodation’ as per Eurostat recommendation. In this regard, there may be minor differences in these statistics and statistics published in tourism supply due to the fact that hotels report time-share accommodation under ‘Collective Accommodation’.
9. Prior to comparing and interpreting differences between demand-side (based on Tourstat) and supply-side (based on Accomstat) tourism statistics, users are strongly advised to consult concept 15.4 of the NSO’s metadata file.
10. Definitions:
● Usual environment: The geographical area, though not necessarily a contiguous one, within which an individual conducts his regular life routines and shall be determined on the basis of the following criteria: the crossing of administrative borders or the distance from the place of usual residence, the duration of visit, the frequency of visit, the purpose of visit.
● Resident: A person is considered to be a resident of Malta/Gozo if:
a. S/he has lived for most of the past 12 months in Malta/Gozo;
b. S/he has lived in Malta/Gozo for less than 12 months but intends to return within a year to settle here.
● Traveller: A person who moves between different geographic locations, for any purpose and any duration.
● Visitor: The three fundamental criteria used to distinguish visitors from travellers are:
a. The trip should be to a place other than that of the usual environment, which would exclude short-distance local transport and commuting, i.e. more or less regular trips between the place of work/study and the place of residence;
b. The stay in the place visited should not last more than twelve consecutive months, beyond which the visitor would become a resident of that place (from the statistical standpoint);
c. The main purpose of the visit should be other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited, which would exclude migratory movements for work purposes.
● Tourist: A visitor who stays at least one night in a rented and non-rented accommodation in the place/country visited.
● Inbound tourism: Comprises the activities of non-resident visitors travelling to Malta (i.e. outside their usual environment) and staying for not more than 12 consecutive months for personal, business or other purposes.
● Total nights spent: Nights which a guest actually spends or is registered to spend in a rented accommodation establishment or in a non-rented accommodation.
● Average length of stay: The number of nights spent divided by the number of trips during a specified reference period.
● Rented accommodation: Consists of the following two sub-categories:
a. Collective accommodation: comprises hotels, guesthouses, hostels, tourist villages, holiday complexes, Bed & Breakfast and campsites.
b. Other rented accommodation: comprises holiday furnished premises (farmhouses, flats and villas), host families, marinas, paid-convents, rented yachts and student dormitories.
● Non-rented accommodation: Comprises own private residence (owned dwellings, owned caravans and yachts), staying with friends or relatives (even if charged – includes also friends’ private apartments) and other private accommodation (oil rig, free-convents or timeshare, etc.).
● Total expenditure: Refers to the amount that is going to be paid for the acquisition of consumption goods and services, as well as valuables during tourism trips. It includes expenditures by visitors themselves, as well as expenses that are paid for or reimbursed by others. The total expenditure is broken down by the following expenditure items:
a. Package expenditure: refers to the whole amount of money spent on transport, accommodation and other services such as rental of a car, activities or outings during the trip.
b. Non-package expenditure: is the amount of money spent on transport and accommodation reported separately.
c. Other expenditure: is the amount spent on shopping, souvenirs, tickets for concerts or sports events, entrance to museums or zoos and day excursions during a tourism trip. It also includes durables and valuable goods, that is, the amount spent on cars, computers, paintings, jewellery and works of art.
11. The nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) provides a single, uniform breakdown of the economic territory of the European Union. The NUTS is the territorial classification for the compilation of regional statistics. The economic territory of a country can be divided into regional territories and the extra-regio territory. For the purpose of regional analysis, MALTA is divided as follows:
| NUTS 0 | NUTS 1 | NUTS 2 | NUTS 3 | |
| MALTA | MT | MT0 | MT00 | MT000 |
| Malta | MT001 | |||
| Gozo and Comino | MT002 | |||
| Extra-regional | MTZ | MTZZ | MTZZZ |
The regional territory includes the region that is part of the geographic territory of a country and any free zones, including bonded warehouses and factories under customs control in the region. The extra-regio territory is made up of parts of the economic territory of a country that cannot be attached directly to a single region.
12. More information relating to this news release may be accessed at:
- Tourstat Sources and methods
National Tourism Survey Sources and methods
Statistical concepts - Metadata Inbound statistics
- Metadata National Tourism statistics
13. A detailed news release calendar is available online.
14. References to this news release are to be cited appropriately. For guidance on access and re-use of data please visit our dedicated webpage.
15. For further assistance send your request through our online request form.
Regional Tourism: 2025
The National Statistics Office (NSO) has implemented a revision to the weighting methodology used in the National Tourism Survey (NTS). Under the revised methodology, Maltese and foreign residents are calibrated separately, allowing survey estimates to better reflect the composition of the resident population. The updated methodology has been applied from reference year 2023 onwards and, consequently, estimates for 2023 and 2024 have been revised and supersede previously published figures. Users should exercise caution when comparing these estimates with data published prior to the methodological update.
A time series based on the previous methodology covers Maltese nationals only from reference year 2023 onwards. Further information on this reclassification is available in the press information notice published on 10 July 2026.
- The total number of inbound and domestic tourists who visited the Gozo and Comino region during 2025 amounted to 589,343. Domestic tourists accounted for 67.4 per cent of total tourism demand within this region.
- The total number of inbound and domestic tourists who visited the Malta region amounted to 3,967,797, with inbound tourists accounting for 99.0 per cent of total tourists visiting this region.
- During 2025, domestic tourism between the two regions amounted to 437,388, an increase of 12.4 per cent when compared to 2024.
- Gozo and Comino received 397,322 of the total domestic tourists, or 90.8 per cent. The remaining 40,066 domestic trips were made by Gozo and Comino residents visiting Malta region.
- In 2025, the total number of inbound tourists visiting the Maltese Islands (MALTA) reached 4,022,310 tourists.
