Cruise passengers down in January

The number of cruise liner passengers that called in January fell by 28 per cent compared to the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said yesterday.

A total of 9,062 passengers arrived on four cruise liners, carrying an average of 2,266 passengers per vessel.

There was an 81.9 per cent drop in the number of Spanish passengers and another 79.3 per cent in passengers from the UK. However, the number of Japanese visitors went up by 48 per cent. Passengers from EU countries accounted for 71.2 per cent of the traffic, with the main market being Germany.