Tourism is Malta’s sacred cow. It is one of the seven priority sectors promoted by the government, and a 2024 state-of-the-nation survey placed tourism as the most important industry in the country.

Malta’s tourism has more than doubled over the last decade. The number of visitors has soared from around 1.7 million in 2015 to 3.5 million in 2024, and surpassed the 4 million mark for the first time in history in 2025, a 500,000-person increase from the year prior. 

That’s the equivalent of an extra 70,000 people in the country every day. In August 2025 alone, that number was 111,600 extra people per day.

The data indicate that tourism numbers have surged post-COVID-19 and are a direct result of policy. Figures are now almost double the 2.3 million that arrived in 2022, the first full year of post-pandemic recovery.

The figures are compounded by the surge in resident population over the same period; between 2011 and 2021, the population grew by more than 100,000, reaching 519,562. By the end of 2024, that figure stood at 574,250. Roughly 7 tourists per resident in Malta.

In terms of total tourism expenditure, tourists spent over €3.9 billion in the country in 2025, up from 3.3 billion the year prior. The amount spent per tourist is €971, according to the NSO.

The largest contributors are tourists from the UK (€942 million) and Italy €374 million). However, the largest growth in spend and arrivals has come from Ireland, with expenditure up by 58% in 2025, followed by Poland (45.6%).

Tourism Figures:

Short Lets, Enforcement, and New Reforms:

Accommodating this surge has pushed thousands to convert private residences into tourist lets.

Collective accommodation, which includes hotels, hostels and others, accounted for 2.4 million of the visitors in 2025. However, the number of tourists staying in other rental accommodation has surged from 800,000 in 2023 to 1.2 million in 2025 – roughly a third of the total.

Our investigation into Airbnb revealed that as of June 2025, there were at least 9,300 active listings on the site; one in five listings across the island of Malta is unlicensed. The picture is starker in the main tourist hubs: nearly a third of all listings in Sliema and St Paul’s Bay are unlicensed, rising to almost half in Gżira. 

Almost every fifth liveable dwelling in Valletta, every ninth in St Julian’s, and every tenth in Sliema and Gzira has been converted into a short-let rental advertised on Airbnb. The industry is dominated by property managers who control hundreds of listings and generate hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, in revenue each year.

Communities overburdened by over-tourism are not provided with adequate resources to address issues caused by economic activity. The number of police officers has barely grown, and frontline ranks even shrank, from Paceville to Swieqi, St Julian’s, Sliema, Valletta and St Paul’s Bay. 

The short-let sector also puts further strain on the long-term rental housing stock, while potential investors drive up prices on the sales market.

On 15th April, two weeks before Prime Minister Robert Abela called a general election, Deputy PM Ian Borg unveiled the new Tourism Accommodation Regulations 2026. They aimed to improve “all types of tourism accommodation, including hotels, boutique hotels and short-term rental properties”. 

The regulations focus mostly on the obligations of owners and operators of short-term rentals, including serving as the official point of contact and ensuring adequate waste collection. Unlicensed operators will now be subject to a three-year disqualification.

The rules also limited extensions of hotel developments, pushing investors to “focus on superior levels of service, rather than volume”.

However, there has been no policy to address the ever-growing number of tourists, residents’ concerns, and, crucially, further investment in services like the police.

Tourism & Development:

By the end of 2025, Malta’s collective accommodation sector had grown to 347 establishments, 36 of them in Gozo. Of these, 163 were hotels, and 184 fell under the “other” category, which covers guesthouses, hostels and tourism villages but excludes short-lets.

The growth is striking. In 2015, the total stood at just 153, less than half today’s figure. In Malta alone, the number of hotels has risen by 61 over the decade. 

The sharpest shift, however, has been in the “other” category, which has climbed from 39 in 2015 to 184 in 2025, overtaking hotels to become the market leader.

An analysis of Planning Authority data identified at least 113 applications for hotels and other tourism accommodation. 

Among them are some of the most controversial developments of the past decade: Mercury House, the DB Hardrock Hotel on the former ITS site, the Six Senses Resort on Comino (blocked by court), and the now-rescinded Manoel Island project.

How much are we spending on tourism?

Tourism is no longer a standalone ministry. In 2025, it was merged into Deputy Prime Minister Ian Borg’s super-portfolio of Foreign Affairs and Tourism.

According to the latest budget estimates, the total budget for the super-ministry is €239.4 million, less than the €248.2 million provided to the Tourism Ministry when it stood on its own in 2024.

The biggest tourism-specific allocations are the contributions to government entities: Malta Tourism Authority (€143 million) and the Institute of Tourism Studies (€8.8 million).

The funds provided to MTA include the generous funds it disburses to countless music festivals on the islands.

Cruise Arrivals Grow, Ship-to-Shore Remains Underused 

Following a near-standstill of cruise ship activity during the COVID-19 year 2020, the number of cruise ships berthing in the Grand Harbour has been increasing annually, with passenger numbers hitting record figures in 2024 and approaching quasi-pre-pandemic levels in cruise vessel calls.

Valletta Cruise Port figures show 357 cruise liner calls in 2024. That’s up from 312 calls in 2023 and 283 in 2022, and slightly lower than the 372 calls logged in 2019.

Meanwhile, passenger numbers also hit new all-time highs: 940,915 in 2024, compared with 889,336 in 2023 and just 147,132 in 2021, exceeding the 902,425 recorded in 2019. This suggests that larger ships are arriving, bringing more crowds.

The government celebrates this constant growth in cruise arrivals. However, residents in the area who are concerned about the impact of fumes spewing from the ships on their health do not share the same jovial tone.

Data on asthma as a main or secondary discharge diagnosis from Mater Dei Hospital between 2017 and 2022, made available to Amphora Media, shows that on average, the Southern Harbour region – which includes Floriana, Valletta, The Three Cities, and other towns surrounding the Grand Harbour – was the district with the highest discharge rates.

The region experienced 1.18 diagnoses per 1000 people over the six years, followed by averages of 0.95 in the Northern district and 0.91 in the Northern Harbour district. However, Malta’s ship-to-shore system remains underused. An Amphora investigation revealed that cruise ships in Malta’s Grand Harbour connected to the onshore power supply system just 9% of the time in the first year of operations.

What to watch for:

With tourism as Malta’s sacred cow, politicians from both major parties have been reluctant to address the industry head-on. Instead, the government has continued to push for sustained growth in the sector, praising the 4 million milestone.

Restaurants, many of which target tourists, were recently promised government funds. Twelve NGOs and residents’ groups are opposing the measure, saying “enforcement by the relevant authorities has remained weak and ineffective. Illegalities are frequently tolerated, penalties fail to deter abuse, and residents feel ignored and sidelined when raising legitimate concerns.” Will they be heard?

Is any party looking to improve enforcement? Is there going to be further investment in services? Are developers and operators being held to account for starting to improve our tourism product? Is this growth model sustainable on an island the size of Malta’s?