Slight decrease in cruise passenger traffic

Cruise passenger traffic during June stood at 73,785, down by 0.7 per cent over 2011.

The number of cruise passengers who were in transit amounted to 54,921 and declined by 7.6 per cent when compared to June 2011.

There were 37 cruise liner calls during the month, with an average of 1,994 passengers per vessel.

The remaining passengers were either embarking from or landing in Malta. These numbered 9,394 and 9,470 respectively. The majority of cruise passengers were 40-59 years old (26,243), closely followed by tourists between 60 and 79 years of age (24,331). On a gender basis, female passengers outnumbered males and comprised 52.2 per cent of the total.

Most cruise passengers came from EU Member States and amounted to 61,779 - an increase of 11.0 per cent over 2011. Over 40 per cent of European passengers came from Germany and amounted to 25,317. The Italian market ranked the second largest market, albeit a drop of 28.9 per cent in passengers when compared to last year. On the other hand, cruise passengers from the United Kingdom more than doubled over last year, reaching 8,709.

Cruise passengers from Non-EU countries stood at 12,006, 35.6 per cent less than 2011. This was mainly caused by a drop of 5,100 American passengers.

January-June 2012

The total number of cruise passengers for the first half of 2012 amounted to 227,353, an increase of 12.7 per cent when compared to the corresponding period last year. Cruise passengers from EU Member States numbered 186,455, most of whom came from Germany (66,365), Italy (36,847) and France (29,198). Cruise passengers from Non-European countries numbered 40,898, or 18.0 per cent of the total. Of these, 54.2 per cent were American.

Female passengers counted 117,554 and outnumbered males by nearly 2 percentage points. The number of cruise passengers visiting Gozo increased by 665 when compared to last year, to 766.