Nearly 490,000 cruise passengers visit Malta in 2022 – NSO

Total cruise passenger traffic during the fourth quarter of 2022 amounted to 103,553, bringing the total number of such visitors to the island for the whole year to 489,571, data published by the National Statistics Office on Thursday showed.

There were 61 cruise liner calls during the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 27 when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2021. Transit passengers accounted for the absolute majority of total traffic, reaching 96,435. On average, every vessel that berthed in Malta carried 1,698 passengers, 374 more than in 2021.

Passengers from EU Member States made up 58.3 per cent of total traffic.

The major markets were Italy, accounting for 16.8 per cent of the total passengers, and Germany, with 16.1 per cent.

The total number of passengers from Non-EU countries stood at 43,203, of which 35.3 per cent came from the United Kingdom and 31.7 per cent came from the United States.

On a gender basis, female passengers made up 52.9 per cent of the total. The largest share of passengers fell within the 60-79 age bracket and were followed by those aged between 40 and 59 years.

January-December 2022

During 2022, total cruise passengers stood at 489,571. Of these, 59.3 per cent came from EU Member States. The majority of the passengers were females amounting to 259,916 or 53.1 per cent of the total.

Most passengers were aged between 40 and 59 years, totalling 170,857. These were followed by passengers aged between 60 and 79 years, reaching 144,695.

There were 283 cruise liner calls in 2022, with an average of 1,730 passengers per vessel, compared to 106 calls and an average of 1,339 passengers per vessel in the comparative period of 2021.

However, the cruise levels have not quite reached those of 2019 - the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic - when a total of 359 cruise liners called in Malta.