There were 12 fewer cruise ships calls to Malta between April and June compared to a year ago, but since each ship carried more passengers, the overall arrivals only changed marginally.

There were 103 cruise liner calls during the second quarter of 2018, bringing 182,862 passengers, a decrease of 0.2 per cent over the corresponding period in 2017.

On average, every vessel that berthed in Malta carried 1,775 passengers, 182 more than the previous year.

There was hardly any change in the number of passengers stopping in Gozo (4,490) or the one who spent a night in harbour (14,572).

During the first half of the year, total cruise passengers stood at 252,604, a drop of 5.9 per cent over 2017, the National Statistics Office reported on Friday.

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