Cruise passenger arrivals down by 17 per cent in June

Figures released by the National Statistics Office yesterday reveal that in June this year, the number of cruise passengers went down by 9,492 over the previous month to 45,089 from 55,301 in May.
Arrivals from the Norwegian market rose by 275 to 715 from 440 the month earlier. Other increases in arrivals were recorded from, amongst others, the Irish, with an increase of 269 arrivals and other markets with 385 arrivals.
In the month under review, drops in arrivals were recorded from the French, which decrease by a massive 4,639 arrivals, the Italian market which registered a drop of 3,039 and the Swiss market, with 2,686 less arrivals.
In the first six months of this year, the number of cruise passengers that visited the Maltese islands amounted to 124,393. In the period under review, the highest amount of cruise passengers were those coming from the British market (34,666) followed by the Spanish (33,588) and the Italian (10,808) markets.
The greatest proportion of cruise passengers, 20 per cent, were aged between 50 and 59 years, while the majority of the cruise passengers were females, which accounted for 53 per cent of passengers.