The Mediterranean cruise market is expected to grow by about 33 per cent in the next five years, and 25 per cent in the following five and Malta, through careful planning should be gaining from this growth as well as increasing its market share, economist Edward Scicluna said in an economic appraisal of Malta's cruise industry.
The total number of passenger visits to all the Mediterranean ports of call was 13.1 million in 2005. Malta's share of this European market stood at 2.6 per cent which was quite good considering that the top five countries: Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Norway, and Portugal were all multi-port countries, he said.
Malta's business at present is as big as Gibraltar's and Cyprus's together.
Prof. Scicluna said that over 50 per cent of passengers on European cruises embarked from Italian and Spanish ports. Malta's port accounted for one per cent of European embarkation.
"The growth during the last three years in terms of cruise ship visits was modest. What is perhaps more interesting are the changes to the visits' seasonal patterns with expansion of the first (October-December) and second quarter (Janunary-March) at the expense of the third quarter (April-June). For Malta, this is a long term objective to spread tourism as much as possible over the months," he said.
The nationality profile trend of cruise tourists visiting Malta was also changing. While UK participation was decreasing, Italian and German tourists were growing in numbers.
Regarding the age profile, Prof. Scicluna corrected the somewhat wrong impression that the majority of cruise tourists are over 60 years old.
Most tourists who visited Malta on a cruise ship last year were between 40 and 59 years old. The over 60s were second, with the 20-39s third.
The perennial stay-aboard-go-ashore dilemma that cruise passengers were faced with seemed to be dependent on the weather in Malta. On average, two-thirds of passengers visiting Malta came ashore during the first half of 2006 (October 2005-March 2006) while in the second half (April-September 2006) only one third did so.
A sizable segment of those who decided to come ashore (38 per cent) visited Floriana and Valletta on foot, while more than half of those who decide to see more of Malta either preferred to take a coach (31 per cent) or a taxi (20 per cent). Karozzini only attract three per cent of the market.
According to NSO estimates, during 2006, a passenger ashore spent about Lm14.20 (€33), while passengers joining an organised tour paid another Lm19.10 (€44) for the organised tour. The overall average spent by cruise passengers was somewhat below the €50 each passenger was estimated to spend at each European port of call, clearly indicating that Malta had the potential to attract more "share of wallet" from cruise passengers, he said.
At present, cruise passengers' expenditure amounted to Lm5.3 million. Seventy-four per cent of this amount was spent on general shopping, other than food and beverages (9 per cent) or transportation (16 per cent).
Prof. Scicluna insisted that the 400,000 or so visitors figure should be seen not so much for what the visitors spent but for what impressions they gained as to repeat their visit ideally for a longer duration.
"It is known, for example, that the time share industry pays the airfare of a potential client just to increase the chances of selling him/her timeshare accommodation. In the cruise liner industry the passengers pay their own way to sample the island for a few hours. Like an instant cake all we need is to add water," said Prof. Scicluna.
As regards to the level of satisfaction, he said that on average looking at various surveys this looked impressively high, however, one should note that most cruise passengers would be coming back from North Africa. A better indicator may be the unsolicited comments made after the visit. Thus for example out of 350 unsolicited comments made to the surveyors about 100 were positive, with the rest negative. Prof. Scicluna asked: "Is this the norm, human nature or a dangerous pointer?"
He said most passengers visit only Valletta. Only a small percentage added Mdina and to a lesser extent the Three Cities. "If we know this, it would be sheer irresponsibility not to give Valletta its due investment to make it a top Mediterranean city - a showcase for the rest of the Island."
The total number of passenger visits to all the Mediterranean ports of call was 13.1 million in 2005. Malta's share of this European market stood at 2.6 per cent which was quite good considering that the top five countries: Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Norway, and Portugal were all multi-port countries, he said.
Malta's business at present is as big as Gibraltar's and Cyprus's together.
Prof. Scicluna said that over 50 per cent of passengers on European cruises embarked from Italian and Spanish ports. Malta's port accounted for one per cent of European embarkation.
"The growth during the last three years in terms of cruise ship visits was modest. What is perhaps more interesting are the changes to the visits' seasonal patterns with expansion of the first (October-December) and second quarter (Janunary-March) at the expense of the third quarter (April-June). For Malta, this is a long term objective to spread tourism as much as possible over the months," he said.
The nationality profile trend of cruise tourists visiting Malta was also changing. While UK participation was decreasing, Italian and German tourists were growing in numbers.
Regarding the age profile, Prof. Scicluna corrected the somewhat wrong impression that the majority of cruise tourists are over 60 years old.
Most tourists who visited Malta on a cruise ship last year were between 40 and 59 years old. The over 60s were second, with the 20-39s third.
The perennial stay-aboard-go-ashore dilemma that cruise passengers were faced with seemed to be dependent on the weather in Malta. On average, two-thirds of passengers visiting Malta came ashore during the first half of 2006 (October 2005-March 2006) while in the second half (April-September 2006) only one third did so.
A sizable segment of those who decided to come ashore (38 per cent) visited Floriana and Valletta on foot, while more than half of those who decide to see more of Malta either preferred to take a coach (31 per cent) or a taxi (20 per cent). Karozzini only attract three per cent of the market.
According to NSO estimates, during 2006, a passenger ashore spent about Lm14.20 (€33), while passengers joining an organised tour paid another Lm19.10 (€44) for the organised tour. The overall average spent by cruise passengers was somewhat below the €50 each passenger was estimated to spend at each European port of call, clearly indicating that Malta had the potential to attract more "share of wallet" from cruise passengers, he said.
At present, cruise passengers' expenditure amounted to Lm5.3 million. Seventy-four per cent of this amount was spent on general shopping, other than food and beverages (9 per cent) or transportation (16 per cent).
Prof. Scicluna insisted that the 400,000 or so visitors figure should be seen not so much for what the visitors spent but for what impressions they gained as to repeat their visit ideally for a longer duration.
"It is known, for example, that the time share industry pays the airfare of a potential client just to increase the chances of selling him/her timeshare accommodation. In the cruise liner industry the passengers pay their own way to sample the island for a few hours. Like an instant cake all we need is to add water," said Prof. Scicluna.
As regards to the level of satisfaction, he said that on average looking at various surveys this looked impressively high, however, one should note that most cruise passengers would be coming back from North Africa. A better indicator may be the unsolicited comments made after the visit. Thus for example out of 350 unsolicited comments made to the surveyors about 100 were positive, with the rest negative. Prof. Scicluna asked: "Is this the norm, human nature or a dangerous pointer?"
He said most passengers visit only Valletta. Only a small percentage added Mdina and to a lesser extent the Three Cities. "If we know this, it would be sheer irresponsibility not to give Valletta its due investment to make it a top Mediterranean city - a showcase for the rest of the Island."