Cruise passenger traffic last month amounted to 5,053 people, a decrease of 1,113 passengers over the corresponding month in 2008, the National Statistics Office said.

It said that embarkations from and landings in Malta stood at 17 and 19 people, respectively.

The NSO said that total cruise passenger traffic in Malta between January and March amounted to 31,813, an increase of 20,990 compared to the same quarter last year, with the absolute majority being passengers in transit.

Passengers from EU countries accounted for 58 percent of total traffic, the main markets being Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy.

American cruise passengers represented 64.8 percent of non-EU incoming passengers.

On a gender basis, male passengers exceeded female ones by two per cent. The largest proportion of passengers - 48.5 percent - were aged between 60 and 79, followed by those in the 40 to 59 age bracket, who accounted for 29 percent of the total.

The average number of passengers per cruise liner, which is defined as the number of cruise passengers divided by the number of cruise liner calls, increased to 2,121 passengers per vessel for March.

There were three cruise liner calls in March, bringing the total for 2009 to 15, compared to six last year.