Italian cruise ports are among the busiest in the Mediterranean, thanks to their strategic location along the Tyrrhenian, Adriatic, and Ionian coasts. Despite a sharp decline in cruise traffic in one of the country’s most popular destinations, Venice, due to the city’s ban on large cruise ships in the Venetian Lagoon, Italy remains one of the leading players in the European cruise market. When breaking down the
in 2023, Italy ranked just behind Spain by a thin margin, with roughly 9.5 million passengers embarking and disembarking at its ports. Meanwhile, when looking at the
, Italy was the third-largest market in 2023, after Germany and the United Kingdom & Ireland, with around 1.2 million passengers, the highest figure reported to date. As the number of cruise guests traveling from Italy recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, so did the
, peaking at over one billion U.S. dollars in 2023.
What are the travel preferences of Italian cruise passengers?
Figures on the
age of cruise passengers sourced from Italy show that this type of vacation has greater appeal among older travelers. In 2023, nearly 60 percent of Italian cruise guests were aged 40 years and older, while teenagers accounted for one of the lowest numbers of Italian cruise passengers that year. In terms of the
length of cruise trips for Italian travelers, one-week holidays were by far the most popular choice, with more than 900,000 passengers taking a seven-day trip in 2023. When considering the
leading cruise destinations for Italians, the Central and Western Mediterranean were the most visited regions in 2023, with a 40 percent increase in passengers compared to pre-pandemic levels.
What are the leading cruise ports in Italy?
With over 3.3 million passenger movements in 2023, Civitavecchia, a municipality in the metropolitan city of Rome, topped the ranking of the
leading cruise ports in Italy based on passenger traffic, ahead of Genoa, Naples, and Palermo. While Venice reported the second-highest figure in 2019, it placed ninth on the list in 2023, with almost a 70 percent decrease in passengers. Overall, the
total number of cruise passengers movements at Italian ports exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2023, reaching a peak of nearly 14 million. This shows that, while issues like sustainability and overtourism will be increasingly important to the Italian cruise market, as already seen in Venice, Italy’s rich offer of cruise destinations will likely help the country maintain its leading status in the Mediterranean.
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