Maritime passenger traffic rose by 6.2% in the EU in 2024, compared to the previous year, with some 417.8 million passengers passing through Europe’s ports.
Passenger numbers were 24.3 million higher in 2024 compared to the previous year, with overall passenger traffic approaching levels not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic, just 0.1% lower than 2019 levels.
Italy leads the way
In terms of the countries that reported the highest number of maritime passengers, Italy led the way, with 93.5 million passengers last year, or 22.4% of the EU total, followed by Greece with 81.1 million passengers (19.4% of the total), and Denmark with 41.3 million passengers (9.9%).
This was followed by Spain, Croatia, Germany, Sweden, France, Malta and Finland, according to Eurostat‘s data.
Some ten EU member states, each of which carried more than 14 million passengers, accounted for 94.1% of all seaborne passenger transport in the EU in 2024.
Between 2019 and 2024, half of the top ten countries recorded an increase in passenger numbers, with Greece seeing numbers rise 9.7%, Italy up 8.0%, and Malta up 14.9%. Declines were seen in countries such as Sweden (-18.7%), Finland (-25.1%) and Germany (-9.8%).
Seven of Europe’s busiest passenger ports were located in the Mediterranean, with the three busiest all situated in Italy: Messina topped the list with 11.4 million passengers, followed by Reggio di Calabria (11.2 million passengers) and Napoli (11.0 million).
Also in Italy, Napoli saw the biggest increase in passenger numbers since 2019, with a 18.5% increase (+1.7 million). Helsinki, in Finland, showed the largest decline, dropping 2.3 million passengers during the same period, or 19.7%.
Cruise passengers
‘The number of cruise passengers passing through EU ports plummeted to 1.2 million in 2020 and rebounded in 2021 and 2022 to 2.8 and 11.7 million, respectively,’ Eurostat noted, adding that close to two thirds of cruise passengers that embarked and disembarked did so in one of three countries: Italy (4.9 million cruise passengers; or 27.6% of the EU total), Spain (3.9 million cruise passengers; or 21.8%) and Germany (2.9 million cruise passengers; or 16.5%).
Czechia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia were not included in the data because they have no maritime transport. While Romania was included, its ports reported no passenger movements. Read more here.
