Big jump in cruise arrivals last month

Ten cruise liners called at Valletta's Grand Harbour last month, carrying 25,533 passengers, more than five times the number who visited in the previous March.

The National Statistics Office said it was an increase of 20,480 passengers over March 2009, attributed to the fact that seven more cruise liners called. Passengers from EU countries accounted for 78.9 per cent of total traffic, with Italians and Germans making up most of these arrivals.

Non-EU passengers made up the remaining 21.1 per cent. Some 43.9 per cent of the arrivals were from the US. Total cruise passenger traffic for the first three months of this year amounted to 45,964, an increase of 44.5 per cent over last year.

Passengers from Germany, Italy and France registered an increase while drops were recorded in the British and Spanish markets.