In 2024, European Union ports recorded a movement of 412.3 million passengers (ferries, cruises, and local traffic), with the sector continuing to show signs of recovery after the collapse caused by Covid. The number of passengers increased by 18.8 million compared to 2023 (+4.8%), although overall traffic remained slightly below 2019 levels (-1.4%).
This information comes from maritime passenger data published today by Eurostat.
In 2024, 10 countries, each with more than 10 million passengers, accounted for 95.4% of all EU maritime passenger transport. Italian ports recorded 93.5 million passengers, equal to 22.7% of the EU total, followed closely by Greece with 81.1 million passengers (19.7%). Denmark ranked third with 41.3 million passengers (10.0%).
Between 2019 and 2024, half of the top 10 countries recorded an increase in passenger numbers. Greece gained 7.1 million passengers (+9.7%), Italy 7.0 million (+8.0%), and Malta 2.0 million (+14.9%). In contrast, the largest declines were recorded in Sweden (-5.7 million; -18.7%), Finland (-4.8 million; -25.1%), and Germany (-3.1 million; -9.8%).
The 10 busiest EU passenger ports accounted for 22.1% of EU maritime passengers. Among these, 7 ports are in the Mediterranean, 2 in the Baltic, and 1 in the North-East Atlantic. The three busiest passenger ports in Europe are all in Italy: Messina is in first place with 11.4 million passengers, followed by Reggio di Calabria (11.2 million passengers) and Naples (11.0 million).
Compared to 2019, Naples recorded the largest increase in passenger numbers (+1.7 million; +18.5%) while Helsinki recorded the largest decline (-2.3 million; -19.7%).
Narrowing the analysis, the number of cruise passengers passing through EU ports plummeted to 1.2 million in 2020, before recovering in 2021 and 2022, to 2.8 and 11.7 million respectively. Demonstrating a solid recovery, 2024 exceeded the pre-pandemic level with a 22.5% increase compared to 2019, with 17.9 million cruise passengers passing through EU ports in 2024, compared to 14.6 million in 2019.
Although cruise passengers represent only a small share of the total number of passengers embarked and disembarked in EU ports, these passengers play an important role in the ports and countries where cruise traffic is concentrated. Almost 66% of the total number of cruise passengers embarked and disembarked in EU ports in 2024 did so in the ports of one of the top three countries: Italy (4.9 million cruise passengers; equal to 27.6% of the EU), Spain (3.9 million cruise passengers; equal to 21.8%), and Germany (2.9 million cruise passengers; equal to 16.5%).
Nine countries recorded an increase in 2024 compared to 2019: Ireland (from 44,000 in 2019 to 360,000 cruise passengers in 2024), France (from 839,000 in 2019 to 2.4 million cruise passengers in 2024), Greece (+171.4%), Portugal (+125.6%), and Poland (+79.9%). Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia, and Finland recorded no cruise passengers in 2024. Estonia recorded the highest declines in 2024 compared to 2019 (-99.1%).
Among the remaining EU countries, three lost over 50% in the same period (Cyprus, Sweden, and Denmark). For the remaining 2 EU countries, Malta recorded a decline of 16.3% and Italy recorded a decline of 1.6%.
