Accredited official statistics

Sea passenger statistics: International sea passengers 2023

Published 13 August 2024

About this release

This statistical release presents final statistics on sea passengers on international routes to and from the UK for 2023.

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.

2023 release

Comparisons have been made with figures from 2022, as well as 2019, the last full year before the coronavirus pandemic started.

Headline figures

International sea passenger numbers increased to 18.2 million in 2023, a 28% increase compared to 2022.

Following the sharp decrease from 2019 to 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 12% below 2019 levels.

Chart 1: UK international sea passengers, 2013 to 2023 (SPAS0101, SPAS0107)

Chart 1 shows UK international sea passengers, from 2013 to 2023.

For international passengers in 2023 :

• the total number of international short sea passengers (on ferry routes) grew by 24% to 15.1 million compared to 2022, however it remained 18% below 2019 levels
• cruise passengers increased to 3 million in 2023. This is a 52% increase from 2 million in 2022 and a 39% increase from 2.2 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 start or finish 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 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.

Chart 2: UK international sea passengers by type of route, 2013 to 2023 (SPAS0107)

Chart 2 shows UK international sea passengers by type of route, from 2013 to 2023. In 2023 there were 18.2 million international sea passengers; 15.1 million (83%) were short sea passengers, 3.0 million (17%) were cruise passengers and 103,000 (1%) were long sea passengers. 

International short sea passengers

Monthly trends (SPAS0107)

In 2023, the number of short sea passengers on international routes increased by 24%, from 12.2 million in 2022 to 15.1 million. On a monthly basis, international short sea passenger numbers remained between 3% to 29% below the comparable pre-pandemic month in 2019 (chart 2).

Chart 3: International short sea passengers by month, from 2019 to 2023 (SPAS0107)    

Chart 3 shows the monthly pattern of international short sea passengers, between 2019 to 2023.

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

In 2023, the month with the lowest passenger level was January, with 643,000 passengers. Numbers then steadily increased until the summer peak in August, where passenger numbers reached 2.3 million, an 8% increase from 2022. 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

Chart 4: Cruise and long sea passengers, 2003 to 2023 (SPAS0101, SPAS0107)

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 2023, international cruise passenger numbers increased from 2.0 million in 2022 to 3.0 million, a 52% increase from 2022 and a 39% 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).

Of these 3.0 million cruise passengers, 2.6 million (87%) passed through Southampton and 103,000 (3%) through Dover. The ports Liverpool, London and Portsmouth had 85,000, 73,000, and 46,000 passengers respectively starting or ending a cruise journey in 2023.

An additional 73,000 cruise passengers (2%) passed through other ports including Forth, Tyne and Harwich. 

Passenger numbers for domestic cruises can be found in Sea Passenger Statistics: Domestic Sea Passengers 2023.

Passengers on long sea voyages

In 2023, the number of long sea passengers increased from 80,000 in 2022 to 103,000 in 2023. 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.

Related statistics

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

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 details

Sea passenger statistics

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

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