Valletta (Malta)

Valletta is the principal seaport and capital city of Malta (island country in the central Mediterranean Sea, southern Europe). Malta Island is located midway between North Africa and Sicily Island (Italy). Since 1974, Malta is a British Commonwealth nation. The other Malta cruise port is Mgarr Harbour (on Gozo Island).

The cruise port is located within the Grand Harbour (port locode MTMLA), which is a natural deepwater harbor waterway.

The Valletta Cruise Port is a subsidiary company of Global Ports Holding. In December 2023, Valletta Cruise Port officially started to provide shore-side power supply to berthed vessels. The first ship (Viking Saturn) connected to Boiler Wharf's shore-power system on December 1st. By this project (budgeted EUR 50 million), the Port now provides electricity (from the city's power grid) at the Grand Harbour's five cruise quays.

Valletta Malta is also the port of registry/flag state for many cruise vessels including riverboats.

A fast-ferry service Mgarr/Gozo-Valletta is provided by two companies - Gozo Fast Ferry, and Virtu Ferries. Both operators offer 45-min crossings via high-speed catamaran ferries with max passenger capacity 300. The Gozo-Valletta distance is approx 43 km (27 mi).

La Valletta City was founded by the 49th Grand Master of Knights of St John - Jean Parisot de Valette (1495-1568). Most of the town's medieval structures still remain.

In 2015, Port Valletta handled 668,277 cruise passengers (29% increase over 2014). The cruise port in 2016 reported a record year with a total of 682,222 cruisers (embarking passengers were excluded), or 2% increase over 2015. During 2016, the port was booked by 42 different cruise shipping operators and 81 different vessels. In 2016, Gozo Island received 19 cruise ship calls and around 7,000 passengers.

In 2017, Port Valletta handled 330 cruiseship calls and 700,000+ tourists. With P&O UK's ship Oceana in the Mediterranean during 2017 season, the port had scheduled 27 calls and over 100,000 passengers via P&O's fly-cruise deals (fares inclusive of flights from UK to Malta and back). The port also had another 5 calls with additional 10,000 passengers (visiting Valletta as port of call).

In 2017, Valletta welcomed its 700,000 cruiser. He arrived on MSC Meraviglia and received a free 3-day Malta vacation package for 2. The package (courtesy of Malta Tourism Authority) was inclusive of flights and a 2-night luxury hotel (provided by The Saint John Hotel). By the end of 2017, the cruise port reported a record year with handled 340 ship calls and around 780,000 passengers. For season 2017, here were homeported liners from the fleets of P&O UK and TUI. In 2017, Malta's inbound tourism results totalled nearly 2,3 million (15,7% increase over 2016). Total overnights in Malta increased by 10,3%. The tourism industry contributed EUR 1,9 billion to country's economy. As demographics, most cruise ship tourists are from North America (USA and Canada).

For 2018, Valletta City was designated "European Capital of Culture". In 2018, Port Valletta handled nearly 800,000 cruise tourists. Season's highlights included Seabourn Ovation's christening ceremony (held here on May 11).

In 2019 (a record year) were handled 906,000+ cruise passengers via 373 ship calls. Season 2019 included roundtrip departures by P&O UK and TUI liners, representing ~31% homeportng operations.

In the post-COVID 2022, the cruise port handled nearly 530,000 passengers.

For 2023, the Port reported ~65% increase (over 2022) in handled passenger movements (~900,000). The industry contributed ~EUR 85 million to the Maltese economy, of which EUR 32M in cruise tourists spending and EUR 53M in cruise lines spending.

Valletta cruise terminal