Valletta Cruise Port has almost doubled its income year-on-year, from €6.33 million in the year ending in March 2022 to €12 million the following year, driven by an increase in both cruise calls and occupancy throughout the period.

During the year from 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023, the global cruise sector steadily recovered from a dire situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Occupancy rates remained low towards te beginning of the period, but increased steadily as time went on.

Valletta Cruise Port is a subsidiary of Global Ports Holding (GPH), which operates a strategically located network of ports in 14 countries.

The improving popularity of cruises helped Global Ports Holdings overturn the previous year’s €29.7 operating loss, allowing it to report an operating profit of €28.2 million for the latest year.

The company operates in five geographic segments – Americas, West Med & Atlantic, Central Med, East Med & Adriatic, and Other.

Valletta Cruise Port forms part of the Central Med Region, along with four Italian ports (Cagliari, Catania, Crotone and Taranto) and two others in which GPH holds a non-controlling interest (La Goulette, Tunisia, and Venice Cruise Port, Italy).

In its annual report, GPH said that activity in the Central Med experienced similar trends to the West Med & Atlantic region, with cruise calls rising strongly compared to the prior year but with lower than-normal occupancy levels, with occupancy rising as the year progressed.

Driven by Valletta Cruise Port, GPH’s largest port in this region, the Central Med region welcomed one million passengers over the period under review, a significant increase of 208 per cent from the 328,000 passengers welcomed in the prior comparable period but 26 per cent lower than the 1.4 million welcomed in the 12 months to March 2020.