Cruise passengers down in first four months

Total cruise passenger traffic between January and April amounted to 56,747, a drop of 1.6 per cent over the same period last year, the National Statistics Office said.

Same-day visitors from EU countries accounted for 84.6 per cent of total traffic, the main markets being Italy, Germany and Spain.

In April, cruise passenger traffic amounted to 45,924 persons, an increase of 8,137 passengers (21.5 per cent) over the same month in 2007.

Embarkations from and landings in Malta in this month stood at 844 and 758 persons respectively.

There were 47 cruise liner calls in April, bringing the total in the first four months of 2008 to 53.