Cruise passenger traffic decreases by 65.8% in March

The National Statistics Office reports that the total number of cruise passengers during March decreased by 65.8%. The drop was attributed to the decline of three cruise liner calls. The average number of passengers per vessel was of 1,247 – half of those registered during March last year. 

Portelli said that statistics were affected by the late Easter of 2011.

“The late Easter holidays this year have had an impact on the statistics for March as people take holidays to coincide with the Easter break. Big clients began their regular calls early last year resulting in high figures for the month of March.

“We were well aware that the figures for March would be lower than last year, however we are highly confident of projections for the remainder of the year, which we predict will be higher than last years figures.”

Most of the passengers were in transit (8,035), whilst the remaining passengers were either embarking (353) or landing (342) in Malta.

According to NSO, the majority of the passenger – 56.5% - fell within the 60-79 age group, followed by the 40-59 age group, which stood at 25.6%.

On a gender basis, female passengers outnumbered males by 4,741 persons or 8.6%.

Cruise passengers from EU Member States reached 5,824, the majority coming from England (35.3%). Non-EU passengers stood at 2,906, with almost half of them coming from the United States.

All markets, except for the British, registered decreases when compared to 2010 levels, NSO says.

Between January and March of this year, cruise passengers stood at 23,633 of whom 52.9% arrived from EU Member States.

Passengers from non-EU countries dropped by 11.7%, marking 11,124 persons. NSO states that all major European markets registered decreases, except for the British market which advanced by 45%.