During the first nine months of 2007, total cruise passenger traffic amounted to 367,705, an increase of 20.8 per cent over the same period last year , the National Statistics Office reports.

Same-day visitors from EU countries accounted for 83.9 per cent of total traffic, the main markets being Italy, Spain, and Germany. The American market remained substantial, representing more than half of the non-EU incoming passengers. The growth was underpinned by increases from the Spanish and Italian markets.

On a gender basis, male passengers exceeding female ones by 2.9 per cent. The largest proportion of passengers - 34.7 per cent - comprised persons aged between 40 and 59 years, followed followed by those in the 60-79 age bracket who accounted for 23.3 per cent of the total.

In September alone total cruise passenger traffic amounted to 64,473, an increase of 4,262 passengers over the same month in 2006. Embarkations from and landings in Malta in this month stood at 1,564 and 1,798 persons respectively.

In the same month cruise liner calls increased by one when compared to the same month in 2006, bringing the total for the first nine months of the year to 256 compared to 249 in the same period of 2006. Chart 1 shows that the average number of passengers per vessel is on the increase, NSO confirmed.