The tender for the Xlendi berthing buoy has been issued by the Malta Maritime Authority paving the way for the promotion of Gozo as an independent cruise port of call, Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said.
He said in a statement that both the government and the private sector were working hard to continue with the promotion of Malta, not only as one of the principal ports of call in the Mediterranean, but also as a Cruise and Stay destination, enhancing the value added which this type of travelling could have on the tourism industry.
In the morning, the National Statistics Office issued a statement saying there were 15,116 cruise passengers in Malta last month, 10,203 more than in the same month in 2007.
It said that total cruise passenger traffic in 2008 amounted to 555,840 passengers, an increase of 13.9 percent over the preceding year. Passengers from EU countries accounted for 77 percent of total traffic, the main markets being Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany.
On the other hand, the American market showed an 89.3 percent rise, representing 57.7 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, Italian and French markets, of 28,484, 11,508 and 3,169 passengers respectively.
On a gender basis, female passengers exceeded male ones by 1.4 percent. The largest proportion of passengers - one-third - comprised persons aged between 40 and 59, followed by those in the 60 to 79 age bracket, who accounted for 31 percent of the total, the NSO said.
Dr de Marco said last year's performance was an important landmark, achieved with the hard work of all stakeholders concerned. This augured well for 2009, notwithstanding the difficulties and challenges being faced by the tourism sector the world over.
He said that international experts in the cruiseliner business were cautiously optimistic that, notwithstanding the current world economic scenario, cruising could still see growth this year, as it represented a very good ‘value for money’ holiday.