In the first six months of this year, the number of cruise passengers visiting the Maltese islands amounted to 76,953, which is 47,440 less than those who visited during the same period last year. The majority of passengers were female, accounting for 53.4 per cent of the total number of passengers.

In June, the number of cruise passengers arriving from France rose by 355 to 1,045. The number of passengers arriving from Austria rose by 980, there were 680 more from Italy and 508 more from Switzerland compared to June last year.

Arrivals from the Spanish market fell by 7,885, from the British market by 8,506 and from the US market by 2,215 in June this year.

In the first six months of 2004 the highest number of cruise passengers, 16,954, came from Britain, followed by the US – 12,711 and France – 11,399.

Of cruise passengers visiting Malta during this period, 59.9 per cent were aged between 50 and 79, 30 per cent were between 20 and 49 years of age and 6.6 per cent were aged 19 or under.