Accredited official statistics

Sea passenger statistics: overview 2024

Published 30 July 2025

About this release

This statistical release presents final statistics on sea passengers on both international and domestic 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. 

Domestic passengers travel on domestic routes, including domestic sea crossings (also referred to as domestic short sea routes), domestic cruises, river ferries and inter-island 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.

Overview of sea passenger statistics 

This statistical release presents the complete statistics on all sea passengers to and from the UK in 2024.  

International routes: These include all passengers travelling on international short sea routes, cruises and long sea journeys to and from the UK. 

Domestic routes: All other short sea passenger routes, including routes between Great Britain and the Orkney and Shetland Islands, domestic cruises, domestic river crossings and inter-island routes. 

Infographic 1: Breakdown of types of sea passenger routes

Summary of sea passenger statistics  

International sea passenger numbers increased to 18.4 million in 2024, 3% higher than 2023. Domestic sea passenger numbers increased by 1% from 37.8 million in 2023 to 38.3 million in 2024.  

After the sharp decrease from 2019 to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, sea passenger figures in 2024 increased slightly compared to 2023 but this increase is slowing year on year. Numbers for international and domestic sea passengers remained respectively 10% and 9% below 2019 levels.  

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

Chart 1 shows the total domestic and international sea passengers between 2014 and 2024.

For international passengers in 2024: 

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

• cruise passengers increased to 3.1 million in 2024 (chart 2), a 16% increase from 2.6 million in 2023 and a 51% increase from 2.0 million in 2019 

Chart 2: Cruise and long sea passengers, 2004 to 2024 (SPAS0101, SPAS0107) 

Chart 2 shows the total cruise and long sea passengers between 2004 and 2024.

For domestic passengers in 2024: 

• the total number of passengers on domestic sea crossings remained stable at 3.8 million, but was 9% higher than 2019 levels 

• inter-island passengers were at similar levels to 2023, but remained 14% lower than in 2019  

• the number of passengers on river ferries increased 3% compared to 2023 and was 7% lower than in 2019 

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. 

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Contact us 

Sea passenger statistics

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

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

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