Cruise passenger arrivals last month slipped 9.2% to reach 52,816 when compared to August 2009, the NSO said today.

It said that passengers in transit numbered 50,203, while those embarking from Malta stood at 1,290.

On a gender basis, it said that women slightly outnumbered men and the biggest group of passengers fell in the 40 to 59 age bracket (19,778) followed by the 0-19 age category (14,211). Together these two age groups made up 64.4 per cent of total cruise passengers.

The majority of cruise passengers were from EU countries and stood at 41,582, or 78.7 per cent, whereas those from non-EU countries amounted to 11,234.

As in 2009, the main European markets were Italy, Germany and Spain. Decreases were recorded amongst all these markets. Non-EU markets recorded an increase of 16.0 per cent in passengers. Most of these passengers were from the United States, and made up 53.9 per cent of total non-EU passengers.

Total cruise passengers for the past eight months totalled 308,663, up by 24.0 per cent when compared with last year.

The NSO said the increase may be attributed to an increase in visitors from EU countries, especially from Italy which increased by 69.0 per cent. On the other hand, non-EU passengers dropped by 8.6 per cent over 2009. During this period there were 157 cruise liner calls, with an average of 1,966 passengers per vessel.

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