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Drop in cruise passengers worries Labour Party

The government did not have a strategy for tourism, Labour spokesman Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said referring to statistics showing a drop in the number of cruise passengers in January. She said that when compared to January 2009, which was bang in the middle of a recession, this year's cruise liner passengers dropped by 28 per cent.

However, she noted the positive figures released by Malta International Airport for January, which showed an increase of seven per cent in the number of people who passed through the airport.

The contrasting figures, she added, belied the government's lack of strategy for the sector, an assertion denied by the Tourism Parliamentary Secretariat.

Reacting to Dr Coleiro Preca's remarks, the secretariat said the government had a national strategy for tourism and this was drafted some time ago but the opposition refrained from giving its contribution.

The secretariat explained that the January drop in cruise liner passengers was a result of bad weather, which prevented a ship from berthing in Malta. "Had the ship berthed, the number of cruise passengers would have surpassed 11,000, which compares well to the 12,580 passengers that came to Malta in January last year," the secretariat said.

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