Cruise passengers for October stood at 68,536, a drop of 11.1 per cent over 2011. Forty-nine cruise liner calls were recorded during the month, 12 less than last year, the National Statistics Office said today.

The number of transit passengers visiting Malta in October from cruise liners increased by 15 per cent compared with October last year. In contrast, during the same period, there was a large decrease in passengers starting and ending their cruise in Malta.

Cruise passengers in the age range 60 to 79 were the largest group (40.4 per cent), followed by passengers in the 40 to 59 age group (30.4 per cent). Female passengers outnumbered males and stood at 35,748, or 52.2 per cent of the total.

Cruise passengers from EU Member States amounted to 51,533, the majority of whom came from Germany and Italy. These numbered 12,314 and 9,239 respectively. The highest increase in passengers was registered in the Spanish market, while a sharp drop was noted in the German market. This was brought about by the fact that this year cruise and fly operations from Malta stopped earlier than they did last year and these particularly impacted the German market.

Cruise passengers from Non-EU countries advanced to 17,003, the majority of whom came from the United States (36.3 per cent), while an additional 10.2 per cent came from Canada.

In the first ten months of the year cruise passenger traffic amounted to 542,194, an increase of 9.8 per cent over last year. The majority of cruise passengers came from EU Member States, and numbered 438,159, or 80.8 per cent of the total. Most passengers came from Germany (146,540) and Italy (87,574), while there was a substantial increase in passengers from Spain. Visitors from outside the EU numbered 104,035 – slightly higher than last year.

During the period under review, 3,367 cruise passengers also visited Gozo, substantially more than last year.

In all, 287 cruise liners called at Malta during the last 10 months: each carrying an average of 1,889 passengers.

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