 Tourism in Malta began to grow beginning in the mid @-@ 1960s . During the 1970s , Maltese tourism grew significantly , with numbers growing from 170 @,@ 800 in 1970 to 705 @,@ 500 in 1981 . From 1981 , the figures dropped to approximately 500 @,@ 000 visitors per year until the late 1980s , when an upward trend began again . In the mid @-@ 1990s , figures were as high as 1 @.@ 2 million tourists per year . 
