How Many Tourists Come to Malta?

Short answer?  Just under one and a half million per year.

July 2012 was one of the busiest months on record, about 175,000 people making it over to the island.  Which is a lot, when you consider the island’s population is just 370,000.  To put it another way, the population increased by almost 50% in July alone due to the influx of foreign sun-seekers.  The U.K. is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, getting a whopping 30 million visitors a year in addition to their population of 62 million.  But that’s over a year, and the U.K. is a big place.  Malta is short on living space in the first place, so you can imagine that services get a little stretched during the summer seasons.

It’s also why a lot of the locals aren’t too sorry to see high season draw to a close, much as the island depends on the tourist trade for income.  Best time to come is probably September:  you’re not absolutely guaranteed the hot cloudless weather of the summer months (though it’s a good bet you will get it, I’ve had many swims so far this month) but the temperatures are more bearable and there aren’t quite as many people jostling for space on the beach.