by Cruises are like Marmite. Many people mock them for contributing to over-tourism without putting much money in the pockets of local businesses, and for being harmful to the environment. In fact, the backlash against holidays at sea in recent years has been sharp. Authorities in Venice, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dubrovnik, Bruges, Mallorca, Maine, Florida, California and Alaska have taken steps to restrict cruise passengers. This month saw the Greek PM hint at plans to restrict cruise traffic, with Santorini and Mykonos first in line for controls. Often, the language used by their baiters is emotional; One consultant in Barcelona compared the cruise ships to a “plague of locusts”.
And yet, the industry shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, a record 31.5m people took a cruise in 2023 – and that figure is predicted to rise to 39.5m by 2027. The world’s largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas, has been unveiled with a capacity of 7,600, in January, and it was in January that the largest cruise ship in the world was unveiled. 25 largest vessels on the planet, 16 introduced in the last four years.
So, despite being pushed out of some European and North American destinations, there is no doubt that cruise ships will continue to be a big part of the travel landscape for years to come. Furthermore, while people like Venice have fallen in love with tourism, other cities are eager to welcome them.
Telegraph Travel reported this week from Trieste, where tourism is on the rise – partly because cruise lines operating from nearby Venice are replacing it. In the Caribbean, there appears to be less appetite for maritime crackdowns. Amsterdam has announced plans for a complete ban on cruises, despite only welcoming around 300,000 passengers a year (about one percent of all visitors to the city). Compare that to, say, Cozumel in Mexico, a port of 80,000 residents that welcomes more than four million cruisers each year – and growing.
So what are the most crowded cruise terminals in the world? Where are Venice and Barcelona? And which countries receive the most cruise passengers per capita?
The countries with the largest number of cruise passengers
Europe’s seaside cities may have the pressure, but the Caribbean is – by far – the world’s greatest cruising region. About a third of all cruise passengers are found there, compared to about 20 percent in the Mediterranean.
The Bahamas really stand out. Its proximity to Florida makes it the first or final port of call for hundreds of sailings from major cruise hubs such as Miami, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. Around 5.4m cruise passengers visited the country on day trips in 2022, the most recent year for which UNWTO has statistics. With a population of just 400,000, that equates to 13.5 cruise passengers for every resident. In comparison, only 1.5m visited the Bahamas by air.
The UNWTO does not have data for every country – the US, UK, Italy and France are notable omissions – but of those nations that have provided statistics, only one welcomes more day tourists than the Bahamas : Mexico, with almost 7.1m. It is another option for ships departing from Florida, and the island of Cozumel, just south of Cancun, is featured on many itineraries. Spain, Greece and the Dominican Republic round out the top five.
When it comes to cruise trips per capita, a new winner is crowned. The island of Sint Maarten has a population of only 42,000, but welcomes an impressive 844,000 cruise passengers. That’s 20.1 per year for each resident.
A further 16 destinations are seeing more cruise arrivals, including Bermuda, St Lucia, Belize and Barbados.
Cruise capitals of the world
Three of the six busiest seaports in the US are located in the same state. The Port of Miami handled 7.3m passengers in 2023, up from about 5m in 2016, Port Canaveral near Orlando handled 6.9m, and Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale sent just over 3m for ocean sailing. People in Florida love to go on trips. Cozumel and Nassau – because they are close to Florida – and Civitavecchia (the port of Rome) were the top five.
There is a changing of the guard elsewhere in the table, and efforts to restrict cruising in Europe are having an impact. Barcelona welcomed 3.14m annual passengers in 2019, good enough for fifth place in the ranking. That fell to 2.32m in 2019 – and will fall further if plans to close the city’s southern cruise terminal go ahead. Restrictions in Venice have seen its cruise numbers drop from 1.43m in 2017 (which would put it 19th on the list) to just 497,000 in 2023. Only around 2.5 per cent of Venice’s 20 million annual visitors come from sea now. Over the same period, the number of cruise passengers in Dubrovnik has fallen from around 750,000 to 550,000.
It means that a clutch of rather obscure ports are rising up the table. Along with tiny Cozumel, now the third busiest cruise port in the world, Mexico’s Mahahual and Ensenada make the top 50. coming from, you guessed it, Florida). On the other side of the world is Jeju, a wonderful corner of South Korea that receives 1.2m surfers per year.
Where do the world’s cruise passengers come from?
As the statistics above have already shown, Americans are the keenest sailors in the world. Almost half of all passengers come from the US.
The largest source markets in Europe are Germany and the UK, followed by Italy, France and Spain. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese cruise passengers is growing rapidly. It is now tied with the UK and Germany as the third largest market (although still well behind the US).
Do cruise ships bring in a lot of money?
One of the main arguments against cruise holidays is the lack of money they bring to local economies. Cruise passengers, critics say, eat, drink and shop aboard their huge ships, spend a few hours sightseeing and taking selfies, and then move on – helping without a hotel, traders or restaurant. .
There is certainly an element of truth to this, and passengers whose fares include food and entertainment can be forgiven for choosing not to splurge ashore. A study by a University of Bergen professor in 2013 suggested that of the 60-80 per cent of passengers who prevent their ship from leaving when it arrives in port, the average spend is NOK 250 per person – around £18.50.
The cruise industry says the real figure is much higher, claiming that passengers spend an average of $750 per passenger in port cities during a typical seven-day cruise – or around £85 a day. In addition, it points to a total global economic impact of $75bn, with tours supporting 848,000 jobs. Among the headline comparisons with swimming insects, these figures are worth a look.
