In December 2008, cruise passenger traffic in Malta comprised 15,116 persons, an increase in absolute and percentage terms over the comparative month in 2007.

December 2008 – Total cruise passengers amounted to 15,116, an increase of 10,203 passengers over the corresponding month in 2007. Embarkations from and landings in Malta stood at 18 and 17 persons respectively.

January-December 2008 – Total cruise passenger traffic in 2008 amounted to 555,840 passengers, an increase of 13.9 per cent over the preceding year. Passengers from EU countries accounted for 77.0 per cent of total traffic, the main markets being Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany.

On the other hand, the American market showed an 89.3 per cent rise, representing 57.7 per cent of non-EU incoming passengers. The overall growth in cruise passenger traffic was underpinned by increases in the American, British and Spanish markets. At the same time, the cruise passenger scene was characterised by falls in the German, Italian and French markets, of 28,484, 11,508 and 3,169 passengers respectively.

On a gender basis, female passengers exceeded male ones by 1.4 per cent. The largest proportion of passengers – one-third – comprised persons aged between 40 and 59, followed by those in the 60 to 79 age bracket, who accounted for 31.0 per cent of the total.

The average number of passengers per cruise liner, which is defined as the number of cruise passengers divided by the number of cruise liner calls, increased to 1,890 passengers in December. There were 8 cruise liner calls in December, bringing the total for 2008 to 397, compared to 369 calls in 2007.

Permalink: Cruise passenger traffic in 2008 up by 13.9%