The number of cruise passengers that came to Malta in 2020 up until ports were closed on March 10 totalled just over 40,000, marking a decrease of almost half over last year. 

Figures published by the National Statistics Office on Tuesday confirmed that the cruise industry was among the worst-hit by the outbreak that has brought the world to its knees.

Up until March 10, after which cruise liners were no longer allowed to berth in Malta because of the COVID-19 health restrictions, there were nine cruise liner calls, the statistics office said. The figure is 12 less than the number of cruise liner calls recorded during the same quarter last year.

This meant that there were 37,876 fewer cruise passengers coming to Malta than in 2019. 

On average, every vessel that berthed in Malta carried an estimated 4,464 passengers, 747 more than the previous year, the NSO said in its report. 

Transit passengers accounted for the absolute majority of total traffic, with passengers from EU member states making up 53.5 per cent of total traffic.

The major markets were Italy, accounting for 22.8 per cent of the total passengers, followed by France and Germany with 10.7 per cent and 6.3 per cent of the share each.

The total number of passengers from non-EU countries stood at 18,663, with 15.4 per cent coming from the UK and almost the same amount (15.0 per cent) from the US.

The largest share of passengers fell within the 40-59 age bracket and were followed by those aged between 60 and 79 years.

Although Malta's health authorities have said they were looking into ways to start lifting some of the measures introduced to help control the outbreak, tourism-related activities are not expected to be back to normal any time soon.