Hospitality businesses surge 80% in a decade as accommodation sector booms
Malta's hospitality sector grew 80% from 2015 to 2024, driven by a surge in accommodation businesses, but wages remain the lowest in the Euro area.
Malta’s accommodation and food services sector expanded by approximately 80% between 2015 and 2024, with accommodation activities accounting for almost three-quarters of the additional businesses.
A Central Bank of Malta study by economist Eliza Farrugia records 4,297 active business units in the sector in 2024, equivalent to 7.1% of Malta’s registered business units.
The sector added 1,911 units over the period. Accommodation accounted for 1,401 of those additions, while food and beverage services contributed 510.
That growth changed the industry’s composition. Accommodation businesses represented 38% of the sector in 2024, compared with 9% in 2015. Restaurants, cafés, bars and other food-service businesses remained the majority, but their share fell from 91% to 62%.
These are business-unit figures, rather than a count of newly opened hotels or an equivalent increase in accommodation capacity.
The study also describes considerable business turnover. Registrations and deregistrations both increased, although net registrations remained positive even during the disruption of 2020.
The expansion has not removed longstanding weaknesses in wages and productivity. Average hourly wages in accommodation and food services stood at €8.90 in 2024, compared with €16.70 across the euro area, a difference of approximately 47%.
Within Malta, the sector recorded the lowest hourly wage among service activities. It also ranked second-lowest for real value added per person employed, ahead of construction.
Profitability presents a different picture. On the study’s measure of operating surplus relative to gross value added, the sector ranked fourth among Maltese economic activities in 2025. Longer-term profitability improved in accommodation but weakened in food and beverage services.
The sector generated approximately €1.15 billion in gross value added in 2025. Its growth therefore combines a larger economic footprint with a continuing challenge: improving the value generated per worker and the employment conditions supporting that output.