Cruise passengers down 14%

Cruise passenger traffic in July dropped by 14.1 per cent over the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said.

It said there were 67,195 visitors and 25 cruise liner calls.

Cruise passengers in transit numbered 50,058, while those embarking from or landing in

Malta amounted to 8,581 and 8,556, respectively.

The cruise passengers in transit dropped by 15.2 per cent, while the remaining passengers dropped by nearly 12 per cent when compared to 2011 levels.

The majority - 53,834, came from EU states. This market saw a drop of 13.2 per cent over last year.

With 20,221 passengers, the German market remained the strongest and was followed by the Italian market with 11,012.

Cruise passengers from Non-EU countries stood at 13,361, down by 17.7 per cent. This was mainly due to a decline of 46.4 per cent in the American market.

January-July 2012

The total number of cruise between January and July amounted to 294,548, up by 5.2 per cent when compared to the previous year.

During the first seven months, 2,144 cruise passengers also visited Gozo - 1,819 more than last year. In all there were 150 cruise liner calls, seven more than the corresponding period last year.