It was a busy summer season for cruise ships berthing in Malta with visitors up 36.1 per cent on last year.

Thousands of visitors poured out of 122 cruise liner calls during the third quarter of this year - July, August and September. That was 27 more calls than the previous year. 

At 74.4 per cent, transit passengers accounted for the absolute majority of total traffic, reaching 191,469. A total of 5,588 passengers visited Gozo, while 4,449 passengers spent at least one night on board their berthed cruise liner. 

Every vessel that berthed in Malta carried an average of 2,108 passengers - 119 more than the previous year.

Visitors from EU Member States comprised 65.9 per cent of total traffic, the major markets being Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. The total number of passengers from Non-EU countries stood at 87,580, of whom 48.8 per cent came from the United States.

Female passengers made up 53.9 per cent of the total. The largest share of passengers fell within the 40-59 age bracket and were followed by those aged between 60 and 79 years.

273 cruise liners visited Malta so far this year

During the first nine months of the year, total cruise passengers stood at 598,837, an increase of 35.6 per cent over 2018. Of these, 65.7 per cent came from EU Member States. Significant increases were recorded in the German, American and British markets.

Female passengers numbered 323,294 and were in the majority. Most passengers were between 60 and 79 years old, amounting to 221,641. These were followed by passengers aged 40-59, reaching 195,793.

There were 273 cruise liner calls during the first three quarters of 2019, with an average 2,194 passengers per vessel, compared to 215 calls and an average 2,054 passengers per vessel in comparative period of 2018.