Eight cruise liners entered Grand Harbour yesterday, establishing a record number of ships in harbour on any one day, and beating last year’s record of seven ships.

As was expected, the Valletta Waterfront and the areas around the Cruise Passenger Terminal were a hive of activity. More than 70 coaches and mini-vans all entrusted with tourist guides and 28 jeeps were busy from the early hours of the morning serving the more than 7250 cruise passengers that visited the Port of Valletta. The public bus system was very popular among city goers with extra trips taking place in between the scheduled trips in order to cater for the large number of passengers. Even a quick visit to Valletta and Mdina would have shown anyone that today was not business-as-usual.

Such events act as a good reminder of the growing success of this incumbent industry, which has experienced a growth of 63 per cent in terms of arriving cruise passengers over the last three years. Statistics also show an estimated contribution to Malta’s GDP of circa EUR93m.

Christopher Paris, general manager of VISET Malta plc, operators and developers of Valletta Waterfront and the cruise passenger terminal, said that this steadily growing success should not be taken for granted and one should be careful from being too elated about these achievements. Rather, all stakeholders involved should use this as a learning experience, and look for new and better ways to achieve long-term sustainable growth for the country’s economic and social benefit.

In fact, in the face of stiff competition from established ports, and threats for new destinations, VISET has worked hard to attract business, build networks and relationships, invest in and improve infrastructure, and create new quality services. However, VISET are also quick to point out that this success owes also much to the co-operation of all stakeholders, ranging from ship agents to police.