MaltaMedia.com

Statistics released on Monday by the National Statistics Office show that the cruise passenger traffic during March 2011 was 8,730 persons, an average of 1,247 passengers per vessel.

NSO said the total number of cruise passengers during March decreased by 65.8 per cent when compared to the previous year and stood at 8,730. This was mainly caused by a decline of three cruise liner calls when compared to the previous year and a significant drop in the average number of passengers per vessel, which was half that registered during March last year.

Most passengers were in transit, these amounted to 8,035, while the remaining passengers were either embarking or landing in Malta, numbering 353 and 342 respectively. The majority of passengers, or 56.5 per cent, fell within the 60-79 age group. These were followed by those aged between 40 and 59 (25.6 per cent).

On a gender basis, female passengers outnumbered males by 8.6 percentage points and amounted to 4,741 persons.

Cruise passengers from EU Member States reached 5,824, while the number of Non-EU passengers stood at 2,906. The largest share of EU passengers was British (35.3 per cent), while nearly half of the Non-EU passengers came from the United States. All markets, except for the British market, registered decreases when compared to 2010 levels.

Total cruise passengers for the first quarter stood at 23,633, of whom 52.9 per cent arrived from EU Member States. Passengers from Non-EU countries, dropped by 11.7 per cent reaching 11,124. All major European markets registered decreases, except for the British market which advanced by 45.0 per cent.

The majority of passengers, 45.3 per cent, fell within the 60-79 age bracket (10,715), followed by the 40-59 age-group (6,855). Female passengers numbered 12,777 and comprised 54.1 per cent of the total. There were 14 cruise liner calls for this period, five less than the number registered during 2010. The average number of passengers per vessel was 1,688.