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on the island which can be roughly translated into 30 thousand tourist staying for a whole year, given that on average, each tourist stayed in Malta for about 9.1 nights. This is equivalent to about 8% of the population, and, as expected such high densities exert heavy pressure on the environment and infrastructure of the Maltese Islands, where population density is already extremely high, with about 1200 persons per square kilometre.

Visitors nationality

The most important market for Malta tourism is Great Britain that set up the number of 34 % of all visitors. The second largest market is Germany, which contributed some 17% of tourists to Malta in recent years. Also a major tourism market to Malta was Italy, France, North Africa and the Netherlands. In recent years there was a tendency for the percentage of British tourists to decrease. At present there is an attempt to attract more tourists from North America.

Socio-economic background

To get a great holiday in Malta, unfortunately we have to spend large sums of money. National Tourism Organisation pointed out that the prices of attractions are too high and decrease the motivation of tourists that wants to visit Malta. They also showed that prices of tour operators offer are lot more expensive compared to similar countries such as Greece and Spain. Due to this fact the decreasing number of tourists coming to Malta has been noticed, just because tourists cannot afford it. National tourism organisation surveys results for the British market indicate that a large proportion of Summer tourists (51% in 1993) were managers, directors or belong to the well paid professions. It would appear therefore that Malta's tourists are not typically low income earners.

Seasonal Pattern

Malta tourism is very seasonal, the majority of inbound tourists arriving in the May to October period in 1999, reached about 82 % of tourists arrived during these months, including 46% arrived during the shoulder months and 36% during the summer months (July to September). The remaining 18% arrived during the November to Jan period (the Winter months). This of course means that the problem of tourist density in summer is even worse. Maltese tourism authorities are trying to attract tourists to Malta during the winter, even if they success there will be no reduction during the winter.

Average Duration of Stay

In recent years, the average stay per tourist was about 9.4 in 1995 to about 9.1 nights in autumn 1999. It was about 13 days in the seventies and has fallen to 12 nights in the eighties. The overall average length of stay concealed significant differences between groups of tourists. Tourists, who are usually in a 3-star hotels and resorts, stay longer than other categories of hotels for accommodation. The shortest stays pertain to tourists in 5 star hotels so also Corinthia St. George's Bay which has really big prices and are mainly focused on higher class of community at the same time keeping the low experience in the hotel and basic their luxury only on amenities as service failed due to the clients expectations.

Tourist Accommodation