Cruisin’! Passengers travelling to (& from) Malta on cruises increase by 44 per cent
More passengers have travelled to and from our islands, and it’s not hard to see why!
Cruise lovers unite! Passengers have increasingly opted for cruise liners as their method of visiting our islands and heading off on an adventure, according to the National Statistics Office of Malta (NSO).
During the second quarter of this year alone, total cruise passenger traffic amounted to 263,608 which results in a 44.2 per cent increase when compared to the same period in 2018.
In a Facebook statement, the NSO said, “there were 130 cruise liner calls during this quarter, 27 more than the previous year. At 79.9 per cent, transit passengers accounted for the absolute majority of total traffic, reaching 210,671.” Quite the turnout! Here are the stats from the report released by the NSO.
1. A total of 2,421 passengers visited Gozo while on the island.
2. A total of 8,419 passengers spent at least one night on board their berthed cruise liner.
3. Every cruise liner anchored in Malta carried an average of 2,028 passengers, which amounts to 253 more than last year.
4. Visitors from EU Member States amounted to 65.5 per cent of the total count, with popular countries of origin being Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
5. The total number of travellers from Non-EU countries amounted to 90,966, 42.6 per cent of whom were from the United States.
6. Between January and June 2019, total cruise passengers stood at 341,659, an increase of 35.3 per cent over 2018.
7. Significant increases were recorded in the German, Americana and British markets.
8. There were 151 cruise liner calls so far in 2019, with an average 2,263 passengers per vessel, compared to 120 calls and an average of 2,105 passengers per vessel during the same period last year.