Hotel occupancy in November 2008 dropped by 6.7 per cent when compared to the corresponding month in 2007, the National Statistics Office said.

The overall occupancy rate in collective accommodation establishments (net use) went down by 6.7 percentage points in November 2008 over the comparative month a year before, to stand at 39.9 per cent.

In November 2008, total nights spent in collective accommodation establishments were recorded at 435,792, a drop of 13.4 per cent over the corresponding month in 2007.

The largest drops being registered in the 3-star and 4-star hotel categories.

In the month under review, the average length of stay stood at 6.2 nights.

Accounting for 95.6 per cent of the national bed-stock, the overall supply of bed-places in Malta stood at 37,328 beds, an increase of 2.4 per cent when compared to November 2007.

On an annual basis, the net use of bed-places in Malta went down by 7.0 percentage points to 40.3 per cent

The average length of stay stood at 6.4 nights. Nights spent by non-residents accounted for 94.3 per cent of total guest-nights in Malta.

In Gozo and Comino, the overall supply of bed-places stood at 1,736 beds, an increase of 6.6 per cent over the comparable month a year ago. The net use of bed-places in November was 27.9 per cent, an increase of 0.5 percentage points over November 2007.

The average length of stay stood at 2.7 nights, a decrease of 0.2 nights. Nights spent by non-residents accounted for 56.0 per cent of total guest-nights in Gozo