More cruise passengers visiting Malta

Cruise passenger traffic in October increased by 14,535 passengers over the same month last year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said.

It said that the total number of passengers during the month amounted to 72,721.

The NSO said that embarkations from and landings in Malta during this month stood at 1,290 and 1,461, respectively.

Total cruise passenger traffic in Malta between January and October amounted to 496,283 passengers, an increase of 16.5 percent over the same period last year.

Passengers from EU countries accounted for 77.8 percent of total traffic, the main markets being Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. The American market remained substantial, representing 58.1 percent of non-EU incoming passengers.

The overall growth in cruise passenger traffic was underpinned by increases in the American, British and Spanish markets. At the same time, the cruise passenger scene was characterised by falls in the German and Italian markets, by 16,176 and 8,734 passengers, respectively.

On a gender basis, male and female cruise passengers were at par. The largest proportion of passengers - 33.3 percent - comprised persons aged between 40 and 59, followed by those in the 60 to 79 age bracket who accounted for 29.3 per cent of the total.