By
Alex Smith |
Cruise traffic across the Mediterranean’s leading ports continued to grow in 2025, with the region’s top 20 ports handling more than 28.8 million passengers from over 9,800 cruise calls, according to new data revealed in the 2026 Cruise Special report from Risposte Turismo.
Passenger volumes increased by 5.7 per cent year-on-year, while ship calls rose by 7.2 per cent, resulting in a reduction in the average number of passengers per call. This trend has been observed across several ports and is partly attributed to the increased deployment of medium and smaller vessels in major destinations.
Barcelona, Spain, retained its position as the busiest cruise port in the Mediterranean, handling 3.99 million passenger movements. Civitavecchia in Italy and Marseille in France followed, recording 2.63 million and 2.62 million passengers, respectively
Analysis of long-term trends indicates that the performance threshold required to rank among the region’s leading ports has increased over the past decade. In 2015, approximately 1.72 million passengers were sufficient to secure third position, whereas in 2025 more than 2.63 million passengers were required to reach the same ranking. A port handling 1.72 million passengers in 2025 would rank between sixth and seventh place.
The threshold for entry into the top 20 has also risen, although at a slower rate. In 2015, around 460,000 passengers were sufficient to enter the ranking, compared with nearly 600,000 passengers in 2025. Istanbul occupied 20th position in 2025 with approximately 596,000 passengers and recorded the highest year-on-year growth among the top 20 ports, with an increase of 48 per cent compared to 2024.
Italy continued to play a central role in the regional cruise market, with eight ports included in the top 20, accounting for 38 per cent of total passenger traffic across the leading Mediterranean destinations. Cruise traffic in the country reached 14.7 million passengers in 2025 across more than 5,690 calls, with both transit passengers (9.9 million) and embarking and disembarking passengers (over 4.8 million) increasing compared to the previous year. Forecasts for 2026 indicate continued growth in Italian cruise traffic, with passenger volumes expected to reach 15.31 million across approximately 5,970 calls, representing increases of 3.9 per cent and 4.8 per cent respectively.
Seasonality patterns are also evolving. While the summer period from June to September remains the peak season, it was the only period to record a decline in passenger volumes year-on-year. Growth was concentrated in the shoulder months of March to May and October, which together handled more than 4.8 million passengers, as well as in December, which recorded the highest percentage increase.
“The Mediterranean’s significance in the global cruise geography is evidenced by the fact that it has long been the second-largest macro-region for traffic after the Caribbean,” said Francesco di Cesare, president of Risposte Turismo. “Through our analysis, we sought to determine how much the ‘performance threshold’ has been raised over the years to reach the top rankings of the region's ports. We discovered a degree of polarisation that separates the top three – with ever-increasing traffic volumes – from the rest of the top 20. Entry into this latter group now requires passenger movement numbers that are certainly higher than a few years ago, though not by an enormous margin. This finding can also be explained by observing that a high number of Mediterranean ports now fall within the range of 300,000 to one million passenger movements – a sign of well-distributed traffic, which is, in turn, a prerequisite for manageable growth.”