32% increase in cruise passenger traffic for January

Cruise passenger traffic during January stood at 12,851, an increase of 32 per cent over the corresponding month last year.

21 February 2012, 12:00am

1 min read

During the first month of the year, cruise passengers in transit stood at 12,809, up by 47.7 per cent when compared to January 2011. Less than 1 per cent of the cruise passengers were embarking from or landing in Malta. Most passengers were between 60 and 79 years of age (5,153), followed by passengers falling in the 40-59 age group, amounting to 3,808.

Female passengers numbered 6,608 (51.4 per cent of the total), while male passengers amounted to 6,243.

The majority of cruise passengers (82.3 per cent) came from EU Member States, and amounted to 10,572. All major European markets registered increases, with the UK recording the highest absolute increase. On the other hand, visitors from Non-EU countries dropped by 43.7 per cent over 2011, and stood at 2,279.

On average, the number of passengers per vessel stood at 2,570. The number of cruise liner calls in 2012 was 5, compared to 4 in January 2011

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These are inflated figures because these statistics take the whole number of passengers on cruise liners entering Grand Harbour. But do all the passengers come down from the cruise liner? CERTAINLY NOT!