Eurostat has announced that in 2024 passenger traffic in European Union ports was 417.8 million people, with an increase of 24.3 million compared to 2023 (+6.2%) and overall traffic that has approached the levels of the 2019 (-0.1%) continuing to show signs of recovery after the collapse caused by Covid. The EU Statistical Office has specified that, in fact, after having continuously decreased between the 2009 and 2014, with an exception in 2013 (+0.3% compared to 2012), the total number of passengers embarked and disembarked in ports has been recovering since 2015 and has reached a peak in 2019 with 418 million (+4.1% on 2009, the year of the peak previous), while, following the strict precautionary measures adopted due to the pandemic, maritime transport of almost halved in 2020 compared to 2019 (-45.0%), falling to a low for the period of 230 million passengers. In 2021 and 2022, a partial recovery, with increases of +16.4% and +39.5% respectively on the previous years.

Last year, ten nations, each with over 14 million passengers, accounted for 94.1% of all transport maritime passenger transport in the EU. At the top of the ranking of the countries with the highest volume of traffic was confirmed Italy with 93.5 million passengers, equal to 22.4% of the total closely followed by Greece with 81.1 million passengers (19.4%) and then from Denmark with 41.3 million passengers passengers (9.9%).

The statistics institute specified that between 2019 and 2019 2024 half of the top ten nations by traffic volume have recorded an increase in passenger numbers, with Greece marked an increase of 7.1 million passengers (+9.7%), Italy by seven million (+8.0%) and Malta by two million (+14.9%). The Sharper decreases in traffic were recorded in Sweden (-5.7 million; -18.7%), Finland (-4.8 million; -25.1%) and Germany (-3.1 million; -9.8%).

In 2024, the three EU passenger ports with the highest significant volume of traffic were all Italians: the port of Messina ranked first with 11.4 million passengers followed, on the other side of the Strait of Messina, by Villa San Giovanni/Reggio Calabria (11.2 million passengers) and then from the port of Naples (11.0 million). Compared to 2019, Naples recorded the largest increase in the number of passengers (+1.7 Million; +18.5%), while Helsinki recorded the largest decline (-2.3 million; -19.7%).

With regard to cruise traffic alone, Eurostat has recalled that the number of cruise passengers who embarked and landed in EU ports has plummeted to 1.2 million in 2020, and then recovered in 2021 and 2022 by going up 2.8 and 11.7 million passengers respectively. Demonstrating of a solid recovery, 2024, with 17.9 million cruise passengers, has exceeded the pre-pandemic level with an increase of +22.5% compared to to 14.6 million in 2019 and with an increase of +12.1% on 15.9 million of 2023.

Almost 66% of the total number of cruise passengers embarked and landed in EU ports in 2024 was concentrated in three countries: Italy (4.9 million cruise passengers on boarding/disembarking, equal to 27.6% of the EU), Spain (3.9 million cruise passengers, equal to 21.8%) and Germany (2.9 million cruise passengers, equal to 16.5%).