The cruise industry took a bit of knock last year, with only 310 cruise liner calls compared to 342 the previous year.

The number was also lower than the 316 calls in 2016.

The National Statistics Office said on Tuesday that the ships carried more passengers but this was still not enough to match the 2017 arrivals, with 632,739 coming in 2018, down 37,396 over the previous year.

The EU remains the highest performing market with two-thirds of the arrivals, with the British (105,978), German (96,719) and Italian (88,579) being the largest groups.

The age of those going on cruises has shifted downwards over the years but the 60-79 category remains the largest, with 40 per cent of all the arrivals, followed closely by the 40-59 category with 31.6 per cent.

Gozo managed to attract 12,950 passengers last year, while 35,229 stayed overnight on the islands.