Just seven cruise liners called at Malta between July and September, with the roughly 7,000 passengers aboard being roughly 97 per cent fewer than those who visited Malta in the same months of the previous year.

New statistics released on Monday shed light on the dramatic downturn in business for the cruise sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to numbers published by the National Statistics Office, 7,018 cruise passengers visited Malta during the third quarter of the year, with all bar two being in transit. By contrast, in the third quarter of 2019 Malta had welcomed 257,178 cruise passengers.

The vast majority of passengers aboard the seven cruise liners were Italian (78.9 per cent), with a further 9.3 per cent being French. Fourteen passengers came from the UK.   

When compared to July-September 2019, cruise liner traffic was down by 97.3 per cent. When comparing the first nine months of the year, the decrease was slightly lower, at 92.1 per cent, with the most significant decreases coming from German, American and Italian markets. In total, 47,193 cruise passengers visited Malta between January and September.

Most of those passengers were between 40 and 59 years old (15,450), followed by passengers aged 60 to 79 (11,505). 60 per cent of passengers came from EU member states and the majority (52.6 per cent) were female, the NSO said.

There were 16 cruise liner calls during the first three quarters of 2020, with an average 2,950 passengers per vessel, compared to 273 calls and an average 2,194 passengers per vessel in the comparative period of 2019.