Cruise passengers in December amounted to 15,737, down by 34.6 per cent over 2010.
However, the overall number of cruise passengers in 2011 reached an all-time high of 556,564, up by 13.3 per cent over the previous year.
The National Statistics Office said there were eight cruise liner calls in December, with an average 1,967 passengers per vessel.
The number of visitors in transit stood at 15,708, down by 33.9 per cent when compared with
December 2010.
The majority were aged between 60 and 79 (5,274), followed by passengers in the 40-59 age group, (4,613). Female passengers outnumbered males and accounted for 51.4 per cent of the total market.
Visitors from EU countries numbered 11,579, down by 15.9 per cent
Almost all European markets recorded drops in December with the exception of Italy and France. With 5,327 passengers, the Italian market was the largest of the EU markets. The number of passengers from non-EU countries also registered a substantial decline of 59.6 per cent when compared to the corresponding month in 2010.
The United States retained the largest share of non-EU passengers despite a drop of 84.4 per cent when compared to previous year.
The overall number of cruise passengers in 2011 reached an all-time high of 556,564, up by 13.3 per cent over the previous year.
Passengers in transit were in the majority, with 79.9 per cent of the total (444,831). The largest share of visitors came from EU countries, and numbered 436,058.
With 151,398 passengers, Germany stood out as the main market for the year under review. Italy followed with 110,076 passengers.
The French market recorded a drop of 32.8 per cent in visitors - the largest drop for the period when compared to 2010 levels.
On the other hand, cruise passengers from Germany increased by 98.5 per cent, brought about by new cruise-and-fly packages launched during the year. Non-EU cruise passengers stood at 120,506, up by 15.8 per cent over the previous year.
The majority of cruise passengers were aged between 40 and 59 (191,638). These were followed by those in the 60-79 age bracket, (166,393).
Female passengers outnumbered males by 14,104 and stood at 285,334. In total, there were 311 cruise liner calls during 2011- 36 more than 2010.