Accredited official statistics

Sea passenger statistics: Overview 2023

Published 13 August 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sea-passenger-statistics-all-routes-2023/sea-passenger-statistics-overview-2023

About this release

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

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 2023.

Infographic 1: Breakdown of types of sea passenger routes

Infographic 1 shows the breakdown of routes in the UK, explained as below.

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.

Summary of sea passenger statistics

International sea passenger numbers increased to 18.2 million in 2023, 28% higher than 2022. Domestic sea passenger numbers remained at similar levels to 2022, from 37.4 million to 37.8 million in 2023.

After the sharp decrease from 2019 to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, in 2023 sea passenger figures continued to indicate a recovery towards pre-pandemic levels. Numbers for international and domestic sea passengers remained respectively 12% and 10% below 2019 levels.

Chart 1: UK domestic and international sea passengers, 2013 to 2023 (SPAS0107, SPAS0201)

Chart 1 shows UK sea passengers by international and domestic routes, 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, it remains 18% below 2019 levels
  • cruise passengers increased to 3 million in 2023 (chart 2). This is a 52% increase from 2 million in 2022 and a 39% increase from 2.2 million in 2019

Chart 2: Cruise and long sea passengers, 2003 to 2023 (SPAS0201)

Chart 2 shows international cruise passengers and long sea route passengers, from 2013 to 2023.

For domestic passengers in 2023:

  • the total number of passengers on domestic sea crossings increased by 3% to 3.8 million compared to 2022 and 9% compared to 2019 levels
  • inter-island passenger figures increased by 2% from the previous year, however numbers remained 14% lower than in 2019
  • the number of passengers on river ferries were at a similar level to 2022 and it was 10% lower than in 2019

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 us

Sea passenger statistics

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

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

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