Accredited official statistics

Sea passenger statistics: international sea passengers 2024

Published 30 July 2025

© Crown copyright 2025

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sea-passenger-statistics-all-routes-2024/sea-passenger-statistics-international-sea-passengers-2024

About this release

This statistical release presents final statistics on sea passengers on international routes to and from the UK for 2024. 

International passengers are those that travel on international routes. These are broken down into short sea (ferry) routes and passengers on cruises and long sea journeys. 

These statistics include all vehicle drivers (including Heavy Goods Vehicle drivers), their passengers and foot passengers on ferries.

You can use our maritime interactive dashboard to further explore international sea passenger trends. 

2024 release 

Comparisons have been made with figures from 2023, as well as 2019, the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic started.

Headline figures 

International sea passenger numbers increased to 18.4 million in 2024, a 3% increase compared to 2023.  

Following the sharp decrease in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, international sea passenger numbers have followed an upward trend. While this indicates a recovery towards pre-pandemic levels, international sea passenger numbers remain 10% below 2019 levels.

Chart 1: UK international sea passengers, 2014 to 2024 (SPAS0101, SPAS0107)  

Chart 1 shows UK international sea passengers, from 2014 to 2024.

For international passengers in 2024: 

  • the total number of international short sea passengers (on ferry routes) grew by 1% to 15.3 million compared to 2023, but remained 17% below 2019 levels 

  • cruise passengers increased to 3.1 million in 2024, a 16% increase from 2.6 million in 2023 and a 51% increase from 2 million in 2019 

Sea passengers on international routes 

Definitions 

Short sea passenger figures include all passengers on short sea routes between the UK and the rest of Europe.  

Cruise passenger figures include all passengers on international cruise journeys who embark and/or disembark their cruise journey at a UK port. Cruise passengers are included at both departure and arrival if their journey begins and ends at a UK seaport. Passengers passing through on transit calls, where they return to the ship and continue their cruise, are not included in these figures. 

Long sea voyage passengers are those travelling on one-way scheduled voyages to and from ports outside Europe and Mediterranean, that either embark or disembark from a UK port. This type of journey includes transatlantic cruises and repositioning cruises.

In 2024 there were 18.4 million international sea passengers. Of this total: 

  • 15.3 million (83%) were short sea passengers  

  • 3.1 million (17%) were cruise passengers and  

  • 37,000 (<1%) were long sea passengers  

Chart 2: UK international sea passengers by type of route, 2014 to 2024 (SPAS0101) 

Chart 2 shows UK international sea passengers by type of route, from 2014 to 2024.

International short sea passengers 

In 2024, the number of short sea passengers on international routes increased by 1%, from 15.1 million in 2023 to 15.3 million. On a monthly basis international short sea passenger numbers remained between 7% and 26% below the comparable pre-pandemic month in 2019 (chart 2).  

Chart 3: International short sea passengers by month, from 2019 to 2024 (SPAS0107)

Chart 3 shows the monthly pattern of international short sea passengers, from 2019 to 2024.

International passenger numbers tend to follow a seasonal pattern across the years, excluding the pandemic period of 2020-2021. The trend is characterized by lower passenger figures during the winter and autumn periods, and higher numbers in spring and summer.  

In 2024, the month with the lowest passenger level was January, with 671,000 passengers. Numbers then steadily increased until the summer peak in August, where passenger numbers reached 2.4 million, a 4% increase from 2023. From August onwards, numbers decreased again throughout autumn, back to winter levels.  

A timeline of coronavirus restrictions that affected maritime travel from 2020 to 2022 can be found in the notes and definitions section. 

International cruise and long sea passengers 

Passengers on international cruises 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were no international cruises departing from UK ports after March 2020 and they did not restart until August 2021. In 2024, international cruise passenger numbers increased from 2.6 million in 2023 to 3.1 million, a 16% increase from 2023 and a 51% increase from 2019. This is the highest number of international cruise passengers recorded and follows a trend that was established before the coronavirus pandemic (chart 4).  

Chart 4: Cruise and long sea passengers, 2004 to 2024 (SPAS0101, SPAS0107)

Chart 4 shows cruise and long sea passengers between 2004 and 2024.

Of these 3.1 million cruise passengers, 2.7 million (88%) passed through Southampton and 75,000 (2%) through Dover. The ports Liverpool, London and Portsmouth had 50,000, 102,000, and 54,000 passengers respectively starting or ending a cruise journey in 2024. 

An additional 91,000 cruise passengers (3%) passed through other ports including Forth, Tyne and Dundee. 

Passenger numbers for domestic cruises can be found in Sea passenger statistics: domestic sea passengers 2024. 

Passengers on long sea voyages 

In 2024, the number of long sea passengers decreased from 96,000 in 2023 to 37,000 in 2024. The number of long sea passengers can vary greatly each year, in part because operators can use these trips to reposition vessels around the world as needed (chart 4). 

Detailed statistics on cruise and long sea passengers by port group can be found in the data table SPAS0101.

Annex: timeline of coronavirus events affecting sea travel 

A timeline of events during the coronavirus pandemic that affected sea travel since March 2020 until March 2022 can be found in the notes and definitions section.

These sea passenger statistics do not provide further information about the individuals travelling through UK ports. Additional information on the origin of passengers is available from the ONS International Passenger Survey, monthly figures. 

The ONS International Passenger Survey publish overseas residents’ visits to the UK by month with a breakdown of geographical areas (for example, EU15 including all countries that joined the EU prior to 2004), as well as information on UK residents visits abroad and where their destination is, again segmented using the same geographical areas. This survey also produces a table on the earnings in the UK and expenditure abroad. 

Background information 

We would welcome any feedback on these statistics at sea-passenger.stats@dft.gov.uk. We will attempt to address any comments in a subsequent release. 

The data tables for sea passenger statistics are available. 

Provisional summary totals for international sea passenger traffic are released monthly in SPAS0107. 

Full guidance on the methods used in the publication of these releases, and the quality of the data, and known users and uses of the statistics are available. 

The sea passenger statistics are accredited official statistics. The statistics presented in this release were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in February 2013 and are therefore labelled ‘accredited official statistics’. 

Details of ministers and officials who receive pre-release access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release are available. 

Instructions for printing and saving 

Depending on which browser you use and the type of device you use (such as a mobile or laptop) these instructions may vary. 

You will find your print and save options in your browser’s menu. You may also have other options available on your device. Tablets and mobile device instructions will be specific to the make and model of the device. 

Select Ctrl and F on a Windows laptop or Command and F on a Mac

  This will open a search box in the top right-hand corner of the page. Type the word you are looking for in the search bar and press enter. 

Your browser will highlight the word, usually in yellow, wherever it appears on the page. Press enter to move to the next place it appears. 

Contact us 

Sea passenger statistics

Email sea-passenger.stats@dft.gov.uk

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

To hear more about DfT statistical publications as they are released, follow us on X at DfTstats.

Back to top