Just over 51,000 fewer passengers travelled to or from Malta on a cruise liner last month when compared to the same month last year, a 17.4 per cent drop.

The National Statistics Office said the majority of visiting passengers hailed from EU countries, mainly Italy and France. They numbered 42,114, whereas the remaining 9,040 came from non-EU countries.

The number of non-EU arrivals decreased by 24.2 per cent over September 2009, with a 57.2 per cent drop from the American market.

Despite the gloomy September, this year has so far been positive for the local cruise liner industry, with a 15.8 per cent rise in passengers registered from January to the end of last month when compared to the same period last year.

Notable increases contributing to the 359,817 figure for total arrivals were of 49.5 and 73.7 per cent from the Italian and French markets respectively.