Cruise passengers arriving from the Italian market rose by 3,904 to 6,163 from 2,259 in August last year. Other increases in arrivals were recorded from, among other countries, the French (+630), the Dutch (+170) and the Maltese (+543) markets.

In the month under review, drops in arrivals were recorded from the Spanish (-8,159), the British (-5,334), the US (-685), the German (-3,230), the Irish

(-398) and a group of “other”

(-448) markets.

In the first eight months this year, the number of cruise passengers that visited the Maltese islands went down by 79,032 over the same period last year and amounted to 156,372. In the period under review, the highest number of cruise passengers arrived from the British market (36,489) followed by the Spanish (31,323) and the US (18,788) markets.

The greatest proportion of cruise passengers, 47 per cent were aged 50-79 years, followed by passengers aged 20-49 years (38 per cent) and 0-19 years (13 per cent) respectively.

The majority of the cruise passengers were females, which accounted to 52.46 per cent of passengers.

In the first eight months this year, the number of Maltese nationals leaving Malta by cruise liners amounted to 5,172, an increase of 776 or 17.7 per cent over the same period last year.