The popularity of sea cruises is rising across Europe, as evidenced by the latest statistics. For the European Union, 8.73 million people started a sea cruise in 2024, according to data from the EU statistics agency, Eurostat. This marks a substantial increase of 12.2% compared to the 7.78 million passengers who cruised in 2023. Furthermore, this figure represents an 18.1% increase when compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when 7.39 million people traveled on such voyages.
The trend is mirrored within Germany, which also reported a major resurgence. According to Destatis, approximately 1.51 million people started a sea cruise from a German port on the North or Baltic Seas in the most recent period available. This figure represents a 4.1% rise from the 1.45 million travelers of the previous year. Compared to the 1.33 million passengers recorded in 2019 (the pre-pandemic baseline), the increase stands at 13.5%, following a noticeable dip during the pandemic years due to travel restrictions.
Within the European context, Germany holds a notable position, accounting for one-sixth of all EU cruise passengers (16.6%), placing the country third among all EU states for cruise departure points. While the majority of passengers began their journeys in Italy (28.4%) or Spain (22.3%), France saw 13.6% of travelers start their trips there, followed by Greece with 8.3%.