510,000 passengers are expected to have visited Malta aboard cruise liners for the year 2014, with a total of 269 cruise calls until the end of December and it is being anticipated that 525,000 passengers from 270 cruise calls of all the Cruise Companies will visit Malta during 2015. This was revealed by Tourism Minister Dr Edward Zammit Lewis when he launched the Hamilton Cruise Fair aboard the luxurious MSC Preziosa, which together with its sister ship, MSC Fantasia visited the Grand Harbour bringing in 8,000 passengers to Malta. Hamilton Travel, exclusive agents to MSC Cruises, launched the MSC Cruises' 2015 brochure before the opening of the Hamilton Cruise Fair on 14,15,16 November at the Excelsior Hotel, Floriana.
The object of this rather unique press conference is the celebrate this marvellous spectacle of two of MSC cruise flagships,the MSC Fantasia and the MSC Preziosa each of 140,000 tones enriching our beautiful and historical Grand Harbour.not only but also today we will also be presenting MSC cruises and Hamilton Travel's summer 2015 brochure,as we stand on the doorstep of our cruise fair which will be held at the Grand Hotel Excelsior Floriana next weekend,the 14,15,16 th November.
MSC Cruises will again be visiting Malta in 2015 namely with the Armonia which shall also offer opportunities for locals to embark on each of Malta/Malta Cruises. Other ships from the MSC Cruise Line, such as the MSC Divina, MSC Poesia, MSC Musica, MSC Magnifica, MSC Sinfonia and MSC Opera shall also visit the Maltese Islands, bringing the total number of MSC ship calling in Malta in 2015 to 24, with a total passenger capacity calculated on double basis of 57,558 pax, for this Cruise Line alone.
More than 318,000 cruiseliner passengers visited Malta between last January and September, meaning an increase of 2.5% when compared with same period of last year. During the first 9 months of 2014, passengers coming from France, Australia and Germany increase by 49%, 39% and 16% respectively when compared with same months under review in 2013.
Between January and September 2014 the passengers staying overnight increased by 196%. During the 3rd quarter of this year (July-September 2014) this increase was very much sharper when compared with same quarter of last year. This quarter under review registered a total number of 13,261 overnight passengers meaning an increase of 7 times as much than that registered in same period last year.
During the first 9 months of this year the number of cruiseliner calls amounted to 203, meaning an increase of more than 17% when compared with same months of last year.
Minister Zammit Lewis said that Malta's cruise sector has been evolving from one which was exclusively just a port-of-call, to one which, thanks primarily to major players in the industry in the recent years, to a turn-around port, as well as a home port. With Malta's unique strategic position in the middle of the Mediterranean, allowing multiple options for itineraries both in the western and eastern basins of the Mediterranean Sea, the outlook for the Cruise industry for 2015 and 2016 is very positive.