Cruises: passenger numbers on the rise in Italy – a 4.3 per cent increase is forecast for 2025
A record was set in the period June–August 2026, with over 6.1 million passengers handled (+4.5 per cent) and an increase in the number of ship calls (+14.9 per cent)
By the end of 2026, 15.4 million passengers are expected to be carried on cruise ships in Italia (+4.3 per cent on 2025) and there are expected to be over 6,000 port calls (+6.6 per cent). A record figure (should the forecasts be confirmed), following a summer period (June–August) which saw over 6.1 million passengers carried (+4.5 per cent on the same period in 2025) and 2,314 ship calls (+14.9 per cent), across the country’s approximately 60 cruise ports. This represents a record result, despite a slight decline in passenger numbers recorded in June (-1.5 per cent). The figures come from Risposte Turismo, a research and consultancy firm specialising in the tourism sector, and were announced during the presentation of the 13th edition of Italian Cruise Day, scheduled to take place in Livorno on 23 October.
“The figures for the June–August quarter,” emphasised Francesco di Cesare, chairman of Risposte Turismo, “clearly demonstrate the significance of the peak season for the performance of the Italian cruise industry. In fact, around 60 per cent of passenger traffic for the first eight months of the year was concentrated in this period. July was the main driver of growth during this period, handling over 2.16 million passengers and recording the most significant increase compared with 2025, with nearly 200,000 more passengers handled.”
August, too, di Cesare continued, “is maintaining a positive trend, whilst June presents a more mixed picture, with a slight fall in passenger numbers, against a double-digit increase in aircraft movements (+16.3 per cent). All these figures, whilst reflecting the efforts of industry operators to deseasonalise passenger flows, clearly illustrate the central importance of the summer months in the annual performance of a sector that is increasingly significant for the planning of ports, shipping companies and local authorities and, more generally, for the country’s tourism industry.”
More specifically, according to researchers at Risposte Turismo, the ports that recorded the most pronounced year-on-year increases in absolute terms during the summer quarter were Salerno (+149,000 passengers handled, +374 per cent compared with 2025), Civitavecchia (+140,000 passengers handled, +9.8 per cent on 2025) and Ravenna (+67,000 passengers handled, +43 per cent on 2025).
Livorno, the host city for the 2026 edition of Italian Cruise Day, recorded, between June and August, an increase compared with the same period in 2025 of over 37,000 passengers handled (+11.5 per cent on 2025) and 28 ship calls (+22.8 per cent on 2025). Meanwhile, at the macro-regional level, the Central-Southern Tyrrhenian region achieved the strongest results in the quarter in question, recording the most significant increases in both the number of passengers handled (+214,000) and the number of ship calls (+162), driven by the performance of Salerno and Civitavecchia, which offset the decline in Naples (-11.9 per cent in terms of passengers).
