The cruise sector has seen a rebound, with the number of ships visiting Malta in the first six months recovering from the drop it had seen between 2017 and 2018.

There were 149 calls in the first half of 2017, but the number had dropped to just 120 in 2018. This year, it not only recouped the loss but managed to beat the 2017 figure, with 151 cruise calls.

However, Gozo – a much smaller market where even a few ship calls can make a difference – saw a decrease in the number of visitors. In 2017, 4,179 had stopped off on the sister island, increasing to 4,490 in 2018 – but dropping to just 2,421 this year.

Germans remain the largest group of visitors (59,217) with British in second place (54,765) and Italian in third (46,358).

From non-EU countries, the number of Americans is also considerable, with a 17,720 increase over 2018 resulting in 43,783 visitors between January and June.

The number of passengers travelling on each ship is also growing, so that the overall arrivals went up more than the number of ships did: there were 341,659 – an increase of 35.3 per cent.