Genoa and Savona cruise ports: one coast, two opposite models, and a €346 million estimate

Genoa is a transit port and Savona is a home port

Stazioni Marittime counted 620,195 home-port and 1,010,398 transit movements at Genoa in 2025, as reported by Shipping Italy on 14 January 2026. That makes Genoa 38.0% home-port and 62.0% transit, on our calculation from the operator's counts. The port authority's release of 30 March 2026 rounds Genoa's transit share to 60%. The two figures are close, and the difference may come from rounding or from a different basis. Neither source explains it.

Savona's mix is the reverse. The AdSP release puts Savona's home-port share at 53%, so transit makes up the remaining 47%. The authority gives no absolute split for Savona. Applying the rounded share to Savona's 791,302 passengers gives about 419,000 home-port movements, a derived figure that should be read as approximate.

Taken together, the coast is not mainly a home-port coast. Adding Genoa's exact count to Savona's derived one gives about 1.04 million home-port movements out of 2.42 million, or roughly 43%. That combination mixes an operator count with a rounded authority share, so it is indicative only. On any reading, transit passengers are the majority.

The two ports also differ in who runs their terminals. In Genoa, MSC accounted for more than 1.23 million passengers in 2025, about three-quarters of the total on our calculation. Costa made 52 calls with about 332,000 passengers, Princess Cruises 10 calls with more than 40,000, and Explora Journeys, MSC's luxury brand, 6 calls with about 5,000, all as reported by Shipping Italy. In Savona, the AdSP extended Costa's concession over the cruise areas and services to 2044 in December 2018. In that announcement the authority described Savona as Costa's main home port. We found no published breakdown of Savona's 2025 traffic by cruise line, so whether that still holds cannot be checked.

The operator expects the pattern to hold. Its plan for 2026, reported by Shipping Italy on 18 June 2026, is about 600,000 home-port and 1 million transit passengers out of about 1.6 million. That keeps the home-port share near 37.5% on our calculation, almost unchanged from 2025. The port authority's long-term projection, set out in the forecasts section below, is also expressed in transit passengers.

The difference matters for the cities as well as the ports. A transit passenger is usually in port for a single day. A home-port passenger has to reach the terminal, often with luggage, and may stay a night before or after the cruise. No source counts those nights, so the effect of each model on hotels and transport in Genoa or Savona cannot be measured from published data.

Both ports grew in 2025, Genoa after a fall. Genoa reached about 1.7 million cruise passengers in 2023, its highest since at least the 1990s, then fell by almost 10% in 2024, about 200,000 fewer, according to Shipping Italy. The 2025 total of 1,630,593 was 99,187 higher than 2024, a rise of 6.47%, on 30 more calls. Savona rose from 752,287 in 2024 to 791,302 in 2025, an increase of 5.2% on our calculation from the authority's figures.

Four counters and a stale 2.3 million

Four organisations publish cruise traffic for this coast. Stazioni Marittime, the terminal operator, reports Genoa only, to the passenger. The port authority's release gives Savona to the passenger, Genoa as "over 1.6 million" and the two ports together as "over 2.4 million", up 6.1% on 2024. Cemar Agency Network, a shipping agency group, publishes a rounded national ranking. Risposte Turismo, a research consultancy, publishes forecasts each October and a Mediterranean ranking each spring.

For 2025 the counts agree. Cemar's 1,630,000 for Genoa is the operator's 1,630,593 rounded, and its 792,000 for Savona is the authority's 791,302 rounded. In Cemar's ranking, published by Shipping Italy on 19 January 2026, Genoa is third in Italy behind Civitavecchia and Naples, and Savona is fifth. Our calculation from Cemar's figures gives Genoa 11.0% of the national total of 14,789,318 and Savona 5.4%. Earlier years also line up. Risposte Turismo's Speciale Crociere 2025 gave Genoa 1,531,406 movements for 2024, the same figure that results from subtracting the operator's reported growth from its 2025 count.

The agreement ends with forecasts. In October 2025 Risposte Turismo described its 2026 figure for Genoa, about 1.7 million, as in line with 2025, Teleborsa reported. The operator had forecast 1.7 million for 2025, according to Shipping Italy. The outturn was 1,630,593. Different publishers' forecasts for the same port and year can differ by more than 100,000, as the forecasts section shows.

The series differ on scope and on definitions. The authority's system total covers Genoa and Savona. Its larger figure of more than 3 million adds La Spezia and the Tigullio ports. Only Risposte Turismo defines its unit, as embarkations, disembarkations and transits, which means a passenger who starts and ends a cruise in Genoa can be counted twice. The operator, the authority and Cemar do not define theirs. On this site every cruise figure is treated as passenger movements unless the source says otherwise.

Mediterranean rankings add a further gap. Risposte Turismo's Cruise Special 2026, as reported by Cruise & Ferry on 3 April 2026, put Barcelona first with 3.99 million movements, Civitavecchia second with 3.5 million and Marseille third with 2.63 million. The published coverage does not give Genoa's or Savona's rank, and we did not find the full table.

The figure that does not fit any series is 2.3 million. Siviaggia wrote on 31 March 2026 that "a Genova si parla di 2,3 milioni di passaggi", citing the annual CLIA study without a year or unit. No count for Genoa alone comes close. The only 2.3 million we found is the port authority's projection of 27 October 2023, which said Genoa and Savona together would reach a record 2.3 million passengers that year. It was a forecast for two ports, made about two and a half years earlier.

The €346 million is an estimate the port authority commissioned

The port authority presented an economic study of cruising at the two ports on 30 March 2026 at Palazzo San Giorgio in Genoa. The study, a survey of the sustainability of cruising at Genoa and Savona, was carried out by the consultancy PTS under Professor Oliviero Baccelli and commissioned by the authority. It puts the direct economic impact of cruising at the two ports in 2025 at €346 million and estimates about 2,700 direct jobs.

The headline mixes two kinds of spending. Passenger spending accounts for €157 million, of which €100 million in Genoa and €57.3 million in Savona. Cruise-line spending in the two ports accounts for €189 million, of which more than €134 million in Genoa and €55 million in Savona. Cruise lines are therefore 54.6% of the total on our calculation. The authority says more than 80% of their spending is tied to home-port functions.

The study's per-passenger figures carry the coast's main tension. It estimates average spending of €90.7 per home-port passenger and €44.3 per transit passenger, so a home-port passenger is put at about twice the spending of a transit passenger. The study attributes €255 million, which the release gives as 73% of the direct impact, to home-port activity. In the study that category includes cruise-line spending tied to home-port functions as well as passenger spending. The ports' estimated value rests on home-port activity, and home-port passengers are the minority at Genoa and a narrow majority at Savona.

The figures need three caveats. We did not find the full study, so its survey method, sample size and treatment of double counting are not known. The €346 million is an estimate of direct impact, not a measured total of money spent in either city. Dividing it by passenger numbers gives a figure per head that includes the cruise lines' own purchases, so we do not use one. The release also reports that more than 80% of surveyed passengers said they liked the visit and would return. Without the questionnaire, that figure cannot be assessed.

The port authority, the regional government and the shipping lines also opposed a new local charge, Shipping Italy reported on 30 March 2026. The Comune di Genova approved a €3 charge per boarding passenger on cruises and ferries in December 2025, expecting about €5.7 million a year, Il Post reported on 17 December 2025. Il Foglio reported on 1 October 2026 that the Liguria regional administrative court had rejected the appeal brought by shipowners' and ship agents' associations, the ferry lines GNV and Moby, and Stazioni Marittime, with the port authority's backing, and that collection had not yet been set up. A further appeal to the Council of State was still undecided. The two reports describe the scope differently on transit passengers. Whether the charge is now being collected is not confirmed.

Access: how passengers reach the ships

The only published data we found on how cruise passengers reach Genoa's terminals date from 2023. At a rail conference held at the Stazione Marittima in May 2024, embarking and disembarking passengers in 2023 were reported to have travelled 41% by car, 41% by coach, 10% by taxi and 8% by train, according to Informatore Navale's report of 20 May 2024. The report also gave an aim of raising rail to 15% to 20%, without naming who set it or who supplied the split.

Several links were planned to raise that share. RFI described a €5 million escalator and lift connecting the underground platforms at Genova Piazza Principe with the Stazione Marittima, due in December 2025. The port authority's mobility plan of April 2024 added a 300-metre walkway between the cruise terminal and Principe and a 600-metre walkway between the airport and a new Erzelli rail stop, estimated at about €29 million, without opening dates. We found no confirmation that any of these links is open.

Genoa's airport had its busiest year in 2025, with 1,577,159 passengers, up 18.1%, according to the airport's figures as reported by Quality Travel on 12 January 2026. That is a count of all passengers, and no figure separates cruise passengers flying in. Our report on Italy's airport traffic in 2025 sets Genoa among the national totals. Passengers who fly into Lombardy instead face a longer transfer, and our guide to the Milan airports covers that system. No source counts how many Genoa or Savona cruise passengers arrive by each route.

Savona has less data still. The April 2024 plan included only a feasibility study for a rail link between the station and the Palacrociere. No modal split for Savona has been published.

Terminals and shore power

One of Genoa's cruise berths has been out of use for most of the period covered here. The levante berth at Ponte dei Mille had been unavailable since early 2024, Shipping Italy reported on 16 May 2025. The works, contracted in November 2021 to a group led by Technital-Fincosit with about 14 months planned, were stopped by an environmental compliance procedure at the Ministry of the Environment. They will enlarge the berth for ships up to 340 metres. The cost rose from €18.6 million to €24.3 million on the authority's own site by January 2025, according to Shipping Italy on 17 November 2025, which also reported that a variant of more than 50% was being considered.

The operator has planned around the gap. Minoia told Shipping Italy in November 2025 that Stazioni Marittime would not need the berth in 2026. The same report said the works had no published end date. We found no update on the berth's status after that report. The berth became unavailable in the same year that Genoa's traffic fell, but no source quantifies a link between the two.

Savona's terminal was rebuilt around Costa's ships. When the authority extended Costa's concession to 2044 in December 2018, it committed €19.35 million to deepen the quay in front of the main cruise berth from 9 to 11 metres, and Costa committed €4.5 million to two new passenger gangways and a reorganised Palacrociere. The announcement linked the works to Costa Smeralda, then Costa's new flagship. We found no later figure for the terminal's daily capacity from a primary source.

Shore power is in progress at both ports and confirmed as operating at neither. Works on the Genoa passenger terminal began on 30 October 2023, with a first phase able to supply up to three cruise ships and a stated completion in 2025, the authority announced. Shipping Italy reported on 19 June 2026 that the cruise-quay projects at Genoa and Savona, costing about €32 million, were running well past their original deadline and would move onto Recovery Plan funding. First tests on Genoa's cruise quays were expected in the second half of 2026. Shore power for some of Genoa's ferry quays has been put back to 2028 at the earliest.

Savona is further ahead on paper. The authority said in December 2025 that its €10.1 million cruise-terminal project had taken delivery of a mobile connection unit rated up to 20 MVA, with completion targeted for the first quarter of 2026. On 21 July 2026 it announced that the works were complete and that the next step was to award the management of the plant. That announcement used the future tense for ships connecting. We found no report of a cruise ship plugged in at Savona or Genoa.

Forecasts for 2026 and 2027

Three forecasts for Genoa in 2026 disagree. Risposte Turismo's Italian Cruise Watch of October 2025, as reported by Teleborsa on 24 October 2025, expected about 1.7 million passengers and about 320 calls, 3.0% fewer than its 2025 estimate. Cemar forecast 1.57 million in April 2026, according to Shipping Italy on 14 April 2026. Stazioni Marittime planned about 1.6 million in June 2026, of which about 600,000 home-port and 1 million transit, on about 320 calls. The operator's own plan keeps Genoa's home-port share near 37.5%, on our calculation.

The first half of 2026 gives a partial check. Genoa handled almost 667,000 cruise passengers from January to June, up 1.7%, and Savona and Vado Ligure almost 412,000, up 4.3%, Shipping Italy reported on 12 August 2026 without naming its source. The same report's headline refers to a fall at Savona, which applies to total passenger traffic, because ferry passengers fell by 9.9%. A half year is not a full-year result, and the report does not give calls.

Risposte Turismo's next forecast, presented in Livorno in October 2026, looks to 2027. It expects about 1.6 million passengers at Genoa, described as stable, according to Shipping Italy on 23 October 2026, and 840,000 at Savona, also stable, according to QuiFinanza on 1 November 2026. La Spezia, the port for the Cinque Terre covered in our Cinque Terre travel guide, is expected to grow 12.6% to 845,000. Liguria as a region is forecast at about 3.4 million, second to Lazio with more than 3.8 million, and the national total at about 16 million, Shipping Italy reported.

Recent forecasts for Genoa have run high. The operator had forecast 1.7 million for Genoa in 2025 and recorded 1,630,593. Teleborsa's report of Risposte Turismo's October 2025 forecast listed Genoa among ports expected to set a record in 2026, while the forecast figure itself was in line with 2025 and about level with the 2023 peak. Our 2026 tourism record watch follows the national monthly series, which do not yet include cruise traffic by port.

The port authority's president, Matteo Paroli, projected about 1 million more transit passengers by 2040 and annual growth of 2.6%, without a stated base, as reported by Shipping Italy on 30 March 2026. The two figures do not fit Genoa's 2025 transit count of 1,010,398, which would need growth of about 4.7% a year to add 1 million by 2040, on our calculation. The projection was not in the authority's written release, and we found no published method.

What is and isn't measured

Passenger movements at both ports are counted with precision. Genoa's operator publishes home-port and transit counts and a breakdown by cruise line. The authority publishes Savona's total and its home-port share. Forecasts are issued at least three times a year by different publishers.

Almost nothing is measured once passengers leave the ship. No source publishes the share of transit passengers who go ashore at either port, where they go or how long they stay. A survey-based spending estimate exists, the authority's commissioned PTS study, but we did not find its method or sample. No count separates passengers who spend a night in Genoa or Savona before or after a cruise, although home-port passengers are the group most likely to do so. Hotel statistics for the province of Genoa do not identify cruise guests. The Liguria regional tourism observatory counted 1,917,399 arrivals in licensed accommodation in the province of Genoa in 2025. That figure cannot be set against the port's 1,630,593 cruise movements, because one counts guests checking in across a province and the other counts passengers boarding, leaving or calling at one port, most of them for a day.

Naples, Italy's second-largest cruise port with 1,846,000 passengers in Cemar's 2025 count, is the subject of our three numbers on Naples tourism. Across the ports this series has examined, counts at the quay, rules and forecasts are published, while local effects are not.

The figures that circulate most widely about the coast are often the weakest. The panel below sets out three claims with their outlets and dates, the verdict and what the evidence supports.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers starting a cruise in Genoa will most likely board an MSC ship, because MSC made 234 of the port's 334 calls in 2025. Savona's terminal is Costa's, under a concession to 2044, although Costa also sails from Genoa. The only published access data we found show that most passengers in 2023 reached Genoa's terminal by car or coach and 8% by train. The planned rail links from Piazza Principe and the airport are not confirmed as open, so check the cruise line's transfer instructions. A €3 municipal charge on passengers boarding in Genoa has been upheld by the regional administrative court, though a further appeal was still possible in October 2026, and whether it is being collected is not confirmed.

Tourism businesses and investors should plan on the home-port passenger. The authority's commissioned study estimates €90.7 of spending per home-port passenger against €44.3 per transit passenger, and attributes 73% of the €346 million direct impact to home-port activity, a category that includes cruise-line spending. That estimate includes €189 million of cruise-line spending in all, and we did not find its method published. Volumes look flat, with forecasts of about 1.6 million for Genoa and 840,000 for Savona in 2027 (Shipping Italy; QuiFinanza), and Genoa's unavailable berth had no published end date in the latest report we found. Shore power is not yet confirmed as operating at either port.

Journalists and analysts should name the series, scope and unit with every figure; the box above lists the strongest figure for each question. Do not repeat the 2.3 million for Genoa, which matches a 2023 projection for both ports; do not call Genoa Italy's home-port capital or Europe's cruise capital, as no ranking supports either; and do not describe the coast as mainly home-port, because transit passengers are the majority.