Fewer cruise passengers in April but more in first quarter

The first four months of this year saw a 22.9 percent increase in cruise passengers over the same period last year but traffic in April declined by 17.4 percent when compared to the corresponding month a year ago.

The National Statistics Office said that total cruise passenger traffic in April amounted to 37,934, a decrease of 7,990 passengers over the corresponding month in 2008. Embarkations from and landings in Malta stood at 440 and 493 persons respectively.

Total cruise passenger traffic in Malta between January and April amounted to 69,747. Passengers from EU countries accounted for 65.8 percent of total traffic, the main markets being Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy. The American market registered a rise, representing 62.6 percent of non-EU incoming passengers.

On a gender basis, female passengers exceeded males by 8.2 percent, reversing the trend observed in previous years. The largest proportion of passengers - 44.1 percent - comprised persons aged 60-79, followed by those in the 40-59 age bracket, who accounted for 29.8 percent of the total.

The average number of passengers per cruise liner, which is defined as the number of cruise passengers divided by the number of cruise liner calls, increased to 1,224 passengers per vessel for April. There were 31 cruise liner calls in April, bringing the total for 2009 to 46, compared to 53 calls last year.