Cruise passengers down 17% last month

Cruise passengers visiting Malta declined by 17.4 per cent last month compared to the same month last year, the NSO said today.

It said that total cruise passenger traffic was 51,154 in September. On average there were 1,550 passengers per vessel.

Cruise passengers who were in transit amounted to 91.6 per cent of the total (46,874), whereas those embarking from Malta totalled 2,146.

Passengers fell mostly in the 40-59 and 60-79 age brackets, at 32.5 per cent and 32.1 per cent respectively. All age groups registered drops in the number of passengers when compared to 2009.

Female passengers outnumbered males and stood at 51.5 per cent. The majority of cruise passengers came from EU countries, mainly from Italy and France, and amounted to 42,114, whereas those from Non-EU countries numbered 9,040. Non-EU markets registered a drop of 24.2 per cent, which was mainly brought about by a substantial decrease in the American market. Maltese cruise passengers stood at 2,104, down by 57.2 per cent over 2009.

January-September

Total cruise passengers for this period numbered 359,817, up by 15.8 per cent when compared with 2009. This upward move was attributed to an increase in visitors from EU countries, especially from Italy and France, which registered increases of 49.5 per cent and 73.7 per cent respectively. Non-EU passengers dropped by 8,491 over last year and amounted to 68,848.