Cruise passenger traffic drops by almost half in first three months as COVID-19 brought sector to a halt

Cruise passenger traffic was one of the first victims of the COVID-19 pandemic with NSO figures showing how this decreased by 48.6% in the first three months when compared to the same period last year

Only nine cruise liners docked in Valletta between January and March as COVID-19 brought the sector to a complete halt on 10 March
Only nine cruise liners docked in Valletta between January and March as COVID-19 brought the sector to a complete halt on 10 March

Cruise passenger traffic dropped by nearly half in the first quarter of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, figures released by the National Statics Office show.

The NSO said that the total cruise passenger traffic during the first three months amounted to 40,175, a decrease of 48.5%.

Malta’s ports were closed in the second week of March as part of travel restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The NSO said that during the first quarter of 2020, there were nine cruise liner calls – this went on until 10 March, after which cruise liners were no longer allowed to berth.

Nine is 12 fewer than the number of cruise liner calls recorded during the same quarter last year.

On average, every vessel that berthed in Malta carried 4,464 passengers, 747 more than the previous years. Transit passengers account for the majority of total traffic.

Passengers from EU Member states made up 53.5% of total traffic. With majority markets being Italy which accounted for 22.8%, followed by France and Germany who made up 10.7% and 6.3% respectively.

The total number of passengers from non-EU countries was 18,663 of which 15.4% came from the UK and 15% of which came from the United States.

In terms of gender, female passengers made up 52.9% of the total. The largest share of passengers fell in the 40-59 age bracket and was followed by those aged 60 to 79.