Cruise liner re-routing raises prospects of a rise in arrivals

The number of cruise liner passengers visiting Malta is expected to rise this year, according to Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco.

The increase is especially due to the fact that the Costa Concordia has been re-routed from Tunisia to Malta. The ship will bring about 100,000 tourists in its 32 weekly trips until November.

In 2010, about 490,000 cruise passengers visited the island, which put the ship’s capacity into perspective. It made last year’s reports that the cruise line was cancelling many of its voyages to the island all the more worrying.

Speaking on board the Costa Concordia yesterday, Dr de Marco pointed out that the ship’s stop in Valletta would also attract people from Cyprus, Turkey and the UK to fly to Malta and start their cruise from here.

“The importance of cruise liners cannot be overestimated,” he said. However, he was reluctant to put a figure on the envisaged growth for this year. Valletta Cruise Port CEO John Portelli last week projected the passenger numbers for 2011 at 622,258.

Since 2001, the cruise industry has attracted more than four million passengers to Malta and direct cruise expenditure amounted to about €250 million between 2006 and 2009. Dr de Marco said surveys showed that a number of cruise passengers re-visited the places they liked most for a longer stay.

The Malta Tourism Authority and his secretariat were working to make Malta an attractive base for home porting to make the most of this growing industry, he said.

The Costa Concordia will be calling at Malta every Friday until November 18. The ship, which weighs 115,000 tons, can carry up to 3,700 passengers and reach a maximum speed of 23 knots.

In the last seven years, 16,000 Maltese passengers took Costa cruises, said Joe Cappello, executive director of Orange Cruises.