Residents of Malta made 704,426 trips abroad between January and September 2026, 6.6% more than in the same nine months of 2025, according to figures published by the National Statistics Office.

The summer months carried much of that activity. Between July and September, residents took 284,486 trips abroad, an increase of 5.1% on the same quarter last year.

People aged between 25 and 44 accounted for the largest share of summer travel, making up 44.4% of the total. Italy held its place as the most visited destination, taking 38.9% of all trips abroad over the summer.

The latest count builds on a year in which outbound travel has climbed steadily. Maltese residents took an estimated 419,940 tourist trips overseas in the first half of 2026, an increase of 7.6% over the same period in 2025. In the second quarter alone, outbound travel rose 2.5%, with 214,123 trips, 1.5 million nights abroad and €195.1 million spent.

Earlier NSO figures gave a sense of how travel splits across the population. They showed that 32.4% of Malta’s population took both domestic and foreign trips, 20.5% travelled abroad only and around 9% opted exclusively for domestic tourism.

The NSO, which compiles the travel data, is the executive arm of the Malta Statistics Authority and draws its mandate from the Malta Statistics Authority Act.

The figures confirm that overseas travel is rising, but they do not record whether overcrowding, traffic or busy public spaces are among the reasons residents choose to leave the island for a few days.