Cruise passenger traffic in August stood at 68,722 , up by 30.1 per cent over the corresponding month in 2010, The National Statistics Office said. There were 30 cruise liner calls with each carrying an average of 2,291 passengers.

The majority of passengers were in transit and amounted to 52,189, while landings in Malta increased to 8,212 and embarkations from Malta reached 8,321. The majority of passengers fell within the 40-59 age group (26,349), and were followed by the 0-19 age bracket (16,616). On a gender basis, male passengers made up 51.4 per cent of the total.

Cruise passengers from EU Member States stood at 61,929, an increase of 48.9 per cent when compared to the previous year. The majority of EU passengers came from Germany (23,474) while another significant share of passengers came from Italy (18,495). Cruise passengers from Non- EU countries registered a drop of 39.5 per cent and amounted to 6,793. This was mainly caused by a significant decline in the American market.

Total cruise passengers during this period stood at 348,744, of which 78.9 per cent came from EU countries. The largest proportion of EU passengers came from Germany and Italy and stood at 100,232 and 71,761 respectively. Non-EU passengers advanced by 23.2 per cent when compared to last year, and amounted to 73,700. This was brought about by a substantial increase in the number of American passengers, who comprised 42.9 per cent of total Non-EU traffic.

The largest share of cruise passengers were between 40 and 59 years old and stood at 123,599 passengers. These were followed by the 60-79 age group numbering 88,151. Female passengers outnumbered males and stood at 176,674. In total, there were 173 cruise liner calls since January, 16 more than the corresponding period in 2010. There was a slight increase in the average number of passengers per vessel for the period under review when compared to last year, with 2,016 passengers per vessel.

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