Other increases in arrivals were recorded from, among others, the Austrian (+557), Belgian (+247), Canadian (+514), Italian (+302), Norwegian (+81), Swiss (+554), British (+891), the US (+3,047) and a group of ‘other’ (+72) markets.

In the month under review, reductions in arrivals were recorded from the German (-419), the Spanish

(-6,986) and the Dutch (-24)

markets.

In the first four months this year, the number of cruise passengers who visited the Maltese islands fell by 1,010 over the same period last year, and amounted to 21,871. In the period under review, the highest number of cruise passengers were those coming from the French market (6,691) followed by the British (1,443) and Italian (3,225) markets.

The greatest proportion of cruise passengers – 58.7 per cent – were aged between 50 and 79, followed by passengers aged between 20 and 49 (28.7 per cent) and 19 years and under (9.5 per cent) respectively. The majority of cruise passengers were female, accounting for 54 per cent of passengers.