A cruise ship company has included Malta in its itinerary after removing Tunis in the wake of a terrorist attack that killed 21 people.
Those killed by gunmen who stormed the Bardo Museum on Wednesday included 17 cruise passengers, who were on an excursion, after their respective ships docked in the Tunisian capital.
Joe Borg, a spokesman for Hamilton Travel, agents for MSC, said the Italian company decided to replace Tunis with Malta for its Western Mediterranean cruise.
After the attack, MSC said it was dropping Tunis as a stopover port for the rest of the year.
“The company immediately chose Malta as a replacement,” Mr Borg said.
Of the cruise passengers killed, 12 were holidaying on the MSC Splendida, while five were cruising with the Fascinosa, from Costa, another Italian company. Ships for both cruise companies visited the Tunisian capital several times a week as the country had started to benefit from a resurgence of tourists after the Arab spring revolt in 2010. The Bardo museum is a popular excursion for cruise tourists, who stop for a few hours in the Tunisian capital.
Costa also announced it was dropping Tunisia from its itinerary and had to find replacement ports for its ships. It is unlikely there were any Maltese holidaymakers on board the two cruise ships.
Mr Borg said no Maltese passengers had booked through Hamilton Travel since the MSC Splendida did not stop in Malta. But passengers could have booked online, he added.
Mr Borg said changes were also made to the itinerary for the MSC Malta-to-Malta cruises that will start in April.
“Passengers who booked a cruise onboard the MSC Fantasia [another ship from the MSC fleet] will now have a first port of call at Palma de Mallorca in Spain, instead of Tunis, after leaving Malta,” Mr Borg said.
SMS Mondial, the agents for Costa cruises in Malta, were not available for comment.
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack and according to a senior Interior Ministry security official quoted by PA, the two attackers had received weapons training in Libya before returning home.
The two gunmen were killed in a firefight with security forces.