Grande Fratello winner Andrea Cocco and 2011 finalists Gwendalina Tavassi, Ferdinando Giordano, Jimmy Barba and Margherita Zanatta are today discovering "beautiful Malta" as part of their seven-day Mediterranean cruise on the MSC Fantasia.
Grande Fratello is Italy's topmost reality show broadcast on Canale 5. Audiences run into millions and the show also has a substantial number of followers in Malta.
The finalists this morning spoke about life post Grande Fratello.
In some cases they were better off even economically but others said they earned less than before and did not get many opportunities out of the programme.
They advised aspiring participants to be "strong" because life inside and particularly outside once the show was over was not easy.
The event, whereby Grande Fratello stars mingle with passengers on board the ship, is an initiative of Television Travel. The idea is to provide theme holidays, promote and do business.
MSC local agent Norman Hamilton said that around 50 cabins (some 150 passengers) were taken up by the Maltese market between March and November each week. Hamilton Travel had now also signed a contract for 60 cabins per week for the same period next year.
Mr Hamilton announced that he has been appointed MSC's general sales agent for Cyprus and he intended to start bringing over passengers from Turkey, Greece and Hungary to start their trip from Malta.
Valletta Cruise Port CEO John Portelli said Malta was becoming more relevant as a port from where cruises could start and finish.
Tourism parliamentary secretary Mario de Marco said the infrastructure to cater for large ships, which carried four times as many passengers as they did in 1999, was now being created.
Despite a drop in the number of arrivals in the first four months, June was the best ever in terms of cruise passengers with 74,000 arrivals, an increase of 60 per cent. The June arrivals brought the total in the first six months to 200,000.
Dr de Marco said each cruise tourist spent about €60 in a day in Malta. This added up to some €30 - €35 million a year.
Expectations for the year were good and this could possibly be the best year in terms of cruise liners, he said with caution.
The parliamentary secretary said that having the Grande Fratello team in Malta was part of the marketing being adopted. The Italian market was the second largest source market to Malta, doubling from the 100,000 arrivals in 2007 to 230,000 visitors last year.