Cruise passenger arrivals last month were down 3.3 per cent over the same month last year, the NSO said today. Arrivals since January were still almost 16% higher than in the same 11 months last year.

A total of 46,989 passengers came to Malta on 32 ships, an average 1,468 passengers per vessel.

The number of passengers who started or ended their trip in Malta was 2,052 and 2,283 respectively. On the other hand, the number of visitors in transit declined by 9.0 per cent, and stood at 42,654.

The majority of cruise passengers fell within the 60-79 age bracket (22,500), and amounted to 47.9 per cent of the total. During the month under review, female passengers outnumbered males by 3,661 and totalled 25,325 (53.9 per cent).

Despite increases in the German and British markets, visitors from EU countries dropped by 11.9 per cent to 32,800. With 9,112 passengers, Germany remained the largest of the EU markets. Visitors from Italy were a close second and stood at 8,981. The number of passengers from Non-EU Member States reached 14,189 - up by 24.8 per cent over 2010. The majority of Non-EU cruise
passengers came from the United States and amounted to 6,548.

January-November 2011
During this eleven-month period, total cruise passengers advanced to 540,827, an increase of 15.8 per cent over last year. From there, 78.5 per cent came from EU Member States. Most EU visitors came from Germany (150,200) and Italy (104,749). The German market recorded the largest increase in passengers (77,624) when compared to the corresponding period last year.

Passengers from Non-EU countries stood at 116,348, with 41.3 per cent registered as US nationals.
The majority of cruise passengers were aged between 40 and 59, and numbered 187,025. These were followed by the 60-79 age bracket, standing at 161,119 (Table 2). Male passengers amounted to 263,588, while females counted 277,239. In total, there were 303 cruise liner calls over the last eleven months, 40 more than last year.