Cruise passenger arrivals in February amounted to 6,195, down by 46 per cent when compared to the same month last year. Only 10 of the passengers were not in transit.

The National Statistics Office said the majority of passengers, 3,109, were within the 60-79 age group, while another 1,824 were between 40 and 59. Male passengers amounted to 2,800 (45.2 per cent).

Cruise passengers from non-EU countries outnumbered those from the EU. The latter dropped by 70 per cent to 2,022. This decline was caused by notable decreases in the German and Italian markets (86.1 and 88.9 per cent, respectively).

There were three cruise liner calls in February, down by two vessels when compared to the corresponding month last year.

The total number of cruise passengers for January to February stood at 14,903, down by 27.1 per cent when compared to last year. This was mainly brought about by a substantial decrease of 7,120 passengers from the German market.

During the first two months of the year, European cruise passengers came mostly from Italy and the UK, while non-EU passengers were mostly Americans.