Number of cruise passengers up 63% in fourth quarter – NSO

Total cruise passenger traffic during the fourth quarter of 2023 amounted to 169,036, an increase of 63.2 per cent over the same quarter of last year, the NSO said Thursday.

There were 82 cruise liner calls during the fourth quarter of 2023, an increase of 21 when compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Transit passengers accounted for the absolute majority of total traffic, reaching 162,230 (96.0 per cent). On average, every vessel that berthed in Malta carried 2,061 passengers, 364 more than the previous year. 

Passengers from EU Member States comprised 51.8 per cent of total traffic. The major markets were Italy, accounting for 19.7 per cent of the total passengers, followed by Germany, with 9.9 per cent. The total number of passengers from Non-EU countries stood at 81,486, of whom 20.7 per cent came from the United Kingdom and 40.4 per cent came from the United States.

On a gender basis, female passengers made up 53.6 per cent of the total. The largest share of passengers fell within the 60-79 age bracket (35.4 per cent) and were followed by those aged between 40 and 59 years (33.5 per cent).

January-December 2023

During the year 2023, total cruise passengers stood at 814,603. Of these, 56.7 per cent came from EU Member States.

The majority of the passengers were females amounting to 434,910 or 53.4 per cent of the total. Most passengers were between 40 and 59 years old, totalling 285,645 (35.1 per cent). These were followed by passengers aged 60-79 years, reaching 224,558 (27.6 per cent).

There were 309 cruise liner calls during the year, with an average of 2,636 passengers per vessel, compared to 283 calls and an average of 1,730 passengers per vessel in the comparative period of 2022.