Cruises are like Marmite. Many people pour scorn upon them for contributing to overtourism without putting much money in the pockets of local businesses, and for being environmentally damaging. Indeed, the backlash against holidays at sea in recent years has been sharp. Authorities in Venice, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dubrovnik, Bruges, Mallorca, Maine, Florida, California and Alaska have all made moves to restrict cruise passengers. This month saw the Greek PM hint at plans to curb cruise traffic, with Santorini and Mykonos first in line for controls. Often, the language used by their detractors is emotive; one councillor in Barcelona compared cruisers to “a plague of locusts”.
And yet, the industry shows no sign of slowing. In fact, a record 31.5m people took a cruise in 2023 – and that figure is forecast to rise to 39.5m by 2027. The world’s largest cruise ship, the 7,600-capacity Icon of the Seas, was unveiled in January, and of the 25 largest vessels on the planet, 16 were introduced in the last four years.
So, despite being pushed out of some European and North American destinations, cruise ships will no doubt continue to be a major feature on the travel landscape for many years to come. Moreover, though the likes of Venice have fallen out of love with cruising, other cities are keen to welcome them.
Telegraph Travel this week reported from Trieste, where tourism is on the rise – in part because cruise lines driven from nearby Venice are docking there instead. Over in the Caribbean, there seems to be little appetite for a cruise crackdown. Amsterdam announced plans for a blanket ban on cruises last year, despite only welcoming around 300,000 passengers a year (around one per cent of all visitors to the city). Compare that to, say, Cozumel in Mexico, a port of 80,000 residents that welcomes more than four million cruisers annually – and growing.
So which are the world’s most crowded cruise terminals? Where do Venice and Barcelona rank? And which countries receive the most cruise passengers per capita?