PHOTO: HOLLY PAYNE
MedCruise President Figen Ayan (seventh from the right) after the Trends in the Med presentation at Seatrade Cruise Global
With over a fifth of the market share, the Mediterranean retains its position as the second largest cruise market in the world after the Caribbean.
MedCruise President Figen Ayan said the Mediterranean has a 21.5% market share, accommodating more than seven million passengers, and that the region has returned to pre-pandemic levels, witnessing a 6.59% increase in passenger calls and a 7.91% rise in cruise calls in 2023, compared to 2019.
Ayan shared the information last week at Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami during the ‘Trends in the Med’ panel where she described the global trends shaping the cruise industry, as well as trends specific to the Mediterranean and surrounding regions. Ayan also analysed trends specific to MedCruise ports.
The information is available in a new report on the MedCruise website.
Key findings
Out of a total 441 cruise ships sailing worldwide, 172 of them will operate in the Mediterranean this year. This figure is down from last year, when the number was 177. Of all the cruise lines, MSC Cruises (25.5%), Costa Cruises (15.2%), Norwegian Cruise Line (7.1%) and Royal Caribbean International (7%) will frequent the Mediterranean the most in 2024.
The average number of cruise passengers per call was 2,263 for MedCruise ports last year –a slight decrease from 2019 when the figure was 2,291.
Passenger movements at MedCruise ports reached 33.2m last year over 14,670 calls. In 2019, passenger movements at MedCruise ports accounted for 31.15m over 13,600 calls.
Regional statistics
For MedCruise ports in the Western Mediterranean, there were 24,216,060 cruise passengers (72.94%) and 9,007 cruise calls (61.39%) in 2023, while in the Eastern Mediterranean there were 4,890,583 passengers (14.73%) and 2,893 (19.12%) calls last year.
4,069,461 passengers (12.26%) and 2,720 (18.54%) cruise calls were recorded at MedCruise ports in the Adriatic.
In the Black Sea there were 22,450 passengers (0.07%) in 2023 and 52 (0.35%) calls documented by MedCruise ports.
Sustainability
At Seatrade Cruise Global, the association also revealed findings from a recent survey on the sustainability of Mediterranean ports. The data captured from 51 participating Mediterranean ports explored the development of environmental monitoring programs, shore power projects, corporate social responsibility, the availability of alternative fuels, and more.
MedCruise’s technical environmental solutions director, Valeria Mangiarotti, and the association’s ecosystems, sustainability, wildlife & biodiversity director, Jamil Ouazzani, delivered the results. These showed that 29% of Mediterranean ports currently provide shore power for cruise ships, with 94% of non-providers expressing readiness to offer shore power before 2030. Additionally, 27% of these ports offer LNG bunkering and 81% intend to provide this service by 2030.
88% of surveyed ports said they had implemented environmental monitoring programs, 92% are mitigating carbon emissions and 57% have monitoring initiatives in place aimed at safeguarding terrestrial and marine biodiversity.
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