Six cruise liners visited Malta in March, carrying 6,756 passengers.

This was 23 per cent less than in the same month last year, the National Statistics Office said.

The NSO said that the absolute majority of cruise passengers (6,718) were in transit while 38 were either embarking from or landing in Malta.

Most cruise liner passengers (2,473) fell in the 60-79 age bracket. These were followed by the 40-59 age group (1,546). On a gender basis, female passengers outnumbered males and made up

53.8 per cent of the total.

The majority of passengers came from EU states and stood at 5,072 - a decrease of 12.9 per cent when compared to 2011.

The majority of European passengers came from Germany (1,445) and Spain (1,328). A substantial decrease was noted in the British market. Cruise passengers from non-EU countries dropped by 42.1 per cent over the previous year and amounted to 1,684.

Almost all main countries registered declines in the number of passengers.

Total cruise passengers for the first quarter stood at 23,460, a marginal drop when compared to 2011 levels.

Cruise passengers from EU countries numbered 18,848, or 80.3 per cent of the total. Most EU nationals came from Germany and Italy, amounting to 4,377 and 3,675, respectively. Non-EU passengers stood at 4,612, down by 58.5 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

This drop was mainly caused by a decrease of 84.4 per cent in the number of American visitors.

Between January and March there were 12 cruise liner calls - two less than in the same period last year.

Each liner carried an average of 1,955 passengers.