In December 2009, cruise passenger traffic in Malta comprised 20,079 persons, up by 33 per cent over the comparative month in 2008.
December 2009
Total cruise passenger traffic amounted to 20,079, an increase of 32.8 per cent over the corresponding month in 2008; 53.6 per cent of these passengers were females. Passengers from EU countries made up 58.1 per cent of the total traffic, with the main markets being Germany, Italy and France. Moreover, same-day visitors from non-EU markets stood at 8,417, and accounted for 41.9 per cent of the total.
January-December 2009
Total cruise passenger traffic in Malta for 2009 amounted to 439,630, down by 20.9 per cent over 2008. Same-day visitors from EU countries accounted for 73.3 per cent of total traffic, the main markets being Italy, Germany, France and United Kingdom. Cruise passengers coming from EU countries registered a decline of 24.7 per cent with significant drops being recorded in the Spanish, British and Italian markets. On the other hand, significant increases were recorded from Germany and France.
On a gender basis, male passengers accounted for 47.8 per cent of the total traffic . The largest proportion of cruise passengers in 2009 were aged between 40 and 59 (33.4 per cent); these were followed by those within the 60 to 79 age bracket, who accounted for 30.6 per cent of the total.
There were 9 cruise liner calls in December during 2009, with an average number of 2,231 passengers per vessel. The number of cruise liner calls last year totalled 261, a decrease of 34.3 per cent with respect to the previous year. Furthermore, the average number of passengers per vessel stood at 1,684.