Total cruise passenger traffic in October amounted to 72,721, an increase of 14,535 passengers, or 25 per cent, over the same month in 2007. Embarkations from and landings in Malta in this month stood at 1,290 and 1,461 persons respectively, the National Statistics Office reported yesterday.

January-October 2008

Total cruise passenger traffic in Malta in the 10-month period to October amounted to 496,283, an increase of 16.5 per cent over the same period last year. Passengers from EU countries accounted for 77.8 per cent of total traffic, the main markets being Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany.

On the other hand, the American market remained substantial, representing 58.1 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 and Italian markets, by 16,176 and 8,734 passengers respectively.

On a gender basis, male and female cruise passengers were at par. The largest proportion of passengers, 33.3 per cent, comprised persons aged between 40 and 59 years, followed by those in the 60 to 79 age bracket, who accounted for 29.3 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 1,322 passengers per vessel for the month of October.

There were 55 cruise liner calls in October, bringing the total for the first 10 months of the year to 358 compared to 318 in the corresponding period last year.