Italy's €1.05bn cruise port plan for 2027-29 has parts that miss the total and no shore-power line

What the €1.05 billion is, and what it is not

Risposte Turismo describes the total in two ways. The headline says over €1 billion. Francesco di Cesare, the firm's president, speaks of over €1.05 billion planned for 2027-2029. Both phrasings come from the same release text reprinted by il Nautilus, and Baird Maritime reported €1.05 billion on 26 October 2026.

The four named categories are specific. Infrastructure supporting cruising takes €339.7 million, or 32.3%. The release lists the kind of work it means: new or longer quays, mooring dolphins, new bollards, road surfaces, lighting and signage. Refuelling and alternative fuels take €219.5 million, or 20.9%. New cruise terminals take €214.3 million, or 20.4%, and the release adds that the figure rises to almost €270 million if renewals of existing terminals are counted. Dredging and seabed excavation take €205.8 million, or 19.6%.

Those four lines sum to €979.3 million. Their published shares sum to 93.2%. Divide each amount by its share and the implied base is about €1,050 million every time, which fits the over €1.05 billion in the quote. On that base, about €70.7 million, or 6.7%, has no label. Neither il Nautilus's reprint nor Baird Maritime's report names a fifth category, and the release does not say what the remainder covers.

The regional split behaves differently. The Adriatic-Ionian area gets €500 million, the Islands €321.3 million, the North Tyrrhenian €177.9 million and the Centre-South Tyrrhenian €53.2 million. These sum to €1,052.4 million, and their published shares sum to 99.96%. So the regions account for the whole total, while the categories account for about 93% of it. On the €1,052.4 million base the unlabelled amount is €73.1 million, or 6.9%, and the four categories are 93.1%. This article uses the €1,050 million base for category shares and the €1,052.4 million sum for regional shares, as the release's own percentages imply.

Reports of the release did not all present the terminals the same way. Baird Maritime gave percentages for three lines and put passenger terminals at almost €270 million including refurbishment, without a share.

Our own earlier Italy cruise statistics article reported the same four categories at 93.2% with about €73 million unitemized. Both numbers hold, on different bases: 93.2% is the sum of the published shares, and €73 million is the gap to the regional total.

Three editions, three totals, no matching categories

The Italian Cruise Watch is an annual exercise, and each edition publishes a fresh three-year plan. Lined up, the headlines look like a decline. The 2023 edition, released on 16 October 2023 before the Cruise Day in Taranto, put investment for 2024-2026 at about €1.6 billion. The 2025 edition, reported by Shipping Italy on 24 October 2025, said investment for 2026-2028 would exceed €1 billion. The 2026 edition says over €1.05 billion for 2027-2029.

On paper the 2027-2029 total is about 34% below the 2024-2026 one. That is our arithmetic on two headline numbers, and it should not be read as a cut. The windows overlap: 2026 sits in the first plan and the second, 2027 and 2028 in the second and the third. Projects move from one plan to the next as they slip or finish. The sources do not list the ports surveyed in any edition, so nobody outside the survey can tell whether the samples match.

The categories changed too. The 2023 release split the €1.6 billion into new terminals at 32.6% (almost €530 million), preparing ports for alternative refuelling and energy supply at the quay at 26.7% (about €430 million), and other cruise infrastructure at over 20% (€330 million). Those three lines come to about €1.29 billion, roughly 81% of the total. Dredging had no line of its own. The 2025 edition, as reported, gave no category split at all. The 2026 edition has four lines, and dredging is one of them.

The label of the energy line is the most important change. In 2023 Risposte Turismo wrote of alternative refuelling "e agli approvvigionamenti energetici in banchina", energy supply at the quay, which is shore power in plain terms. In 2026 the line reads "rifornimenti e carburanti alternativi", refuelling and alternative fuels, with no mention of the quay. The share fell from 26.7% to 20.9%. Because the wording changed, the two shares measure different things, and the drop cannot be read as less money for shore power.

Two other series often sit next to these totals and belong to different questions. A pre-event report in Quality Travel said €860 million had been invested in 2024-2026, from early Italian Cruise Watch figures, with no breakdown. Setting that against the €1.6 billion planned for the same years would suggest a shortfall, but the scopes are not shown to match. The Adriatic Sea Forum, organized by Assoporti and Risposte Turismo according to Shipping Italy (27 June 2026), a report not reopened for this article, publishes totals for Adriatic ports only. In June 2026 it reported over €843 million for 2027-2030, of which €573 million was for cruise and ferry traffic and €270 million for leisure boating, according to Shipping Italy. Those figures cannot be added to or subtracted from the national plan.

The ministry has its own number. In October 2025 Deputy Minister Rixi said, as reported by Teleborsa, that there were over €335 million of dedicated works, more than €312 million of them funded directly by the transport ministry, across twenty projects. That is a ministerial statement about public funding, and it is not part of the Risposte Turismo survey.

Cold ironing: the EU deadline the plan does not name

Cold ironing means plugging a ship into the port's electricity grid so it can switch off its diesel generators at berth. Cruise ships need power for their hotel services while they are in port. EU law calls the technology shore-side electricity supply, and two regulations adopted in 2023 set its timetable.

The first is the alternative fuels infrastructure regulation, known as AFIR, Regulation (EU) 2023/1804. Its Article 9 obliges member states to ensure, by 31 December 2029, that core and comprehensive TEN-T maritime ports supply shore power for at least 90% of calls by the ships it covers. For cruise ships, the rule applies to passenger ships above 5,000 gross tonnes in ports that average more than 25 such calls a year over three years. Ro-ro passenger ships and high-speed craft count from 40 calls, and container ships above 5,000 tonnes from 100. Ports on islands that are not directly connected to the mainland grid are exempt until that connection is built, or until enough local non-fossil electricity exists. Which Italian island ports qualify for the exemption was not examined for this article.

The second is FuelEU Maritime, Regulation (EU) 2023/1805. Its Article 6 turns the port obligation into a ship obligation. From 1 January 2030, passenger and container ships moored in ports covered by AFIR Article 9 must connect to shore power and use it for all their electricity needs at berth. From 1 January 2035, the same rule applies in any other port where shore power is available at the quay. Article 6(5) lists eight exceptions, including stays under two hours, ships using approved zero-emission technology, quays with no connection point, a risk to grid stability and equipment that is not compatible.

The 2027-2029 plan ends on the day AFIR's deadline falls. The release does not mention shore power, cold ironing or onshore power supply anywhere in the text reprinted by il Nautilus. Risposte Turismo's own Speciale Crociere 2026, published in March, says only that numerous ports plan to activate onshore power supply between 2026 and 2028, with no amounts and no list of ports.

The money for shore power runs through a national programme funded largely by the EU recovery plan, the PNRR, and its national complement. Its size depends on who is counting. Eunews reported in February 2025 that the PNRR set aside €400 million for cold ironing. Liguori, the transport ministry's director general for ports, told il Nordest that Italy would be first in the world with over €800 million spent, and Economia del Mare reported on 12 June 2026 that he described about €800 million of EU funds for 52 interventions and over 740 megawatts. SRM, the research centre of the Intesa Sanpaolo group, put planned cold-ironing works in Italian ports at €988 million, with €843 million already allocated, on a page last updated on 5 June 2026. A figure of €700 million also circulates. No source found for this article supports it as a euro amount.

Separately, the European Commission approved a €570 million Italian scheme in 2024 to encourage ships to use shore power, running until 31 December 2033, according to Ports Europe. The part of the report available does not describe how the aid works, and the scheme is separate from the money for building plants. None of these national figures is limited to cruise ports, since they also cover ferry and container berths, and none can be mapped onto the Risposte Turismo fuels line.

Port by port, the picture is uneven. Civitavecchia, Rome's cruise port and Italy's busiest, started building in February 2025: €81 million of PNRR money for nine berths, three of them for large cruise ships and two multipurpose, with completion planned by June 2026, according to eunews. In March 2026 the port authority's president, Latrofa, still spoke of the project in the future tense, as reported by Italpress. No report of its start of operation was found.

In Liguria, a ministry decree moved the €32 million of PNRR funds set aside for Genoa's ferry berths onto the cruise-berth projects of Genoa and Savona, which had been financed with €29.4 million in 2020 and had grown to about €32 million with extra costs, Shipping Italy reported on 19 June 2026. First tests on Genoa's cruise berths were expected in the second half of 2026. The ferry project in Genoa, originally due by the end of 2026, had not reached tender and will not be ready before 2028, the port authority said. On 21 July 2026 the authority announced that the Savona cruise-terminal plant was complete and would now move to the assignment of its management. Our Genoa and Savona homeport coast article covers the traffic these berths serve.

La Spezia connected MSC Seaview to its Molo Garibaldi system in a commissioning test in October 2025, Shipping Italy reported, with 10 megawatts available and a contract of just over €7 million for the transformer station. A second test with Costa Toscana followed in December 2025, ahead of planned operational use the next season, according to Ports Europe. A 2026 report of regular service was not found. Press reports from 2025 and May 2026 on Venice, Naples, Trieste and Salerno describe works at design or construction stage, or a plant without an operating framework. Those reports were not reopened for this article.

New terminals and dredging: three numbers for the same buildings

The terminal list is the most concrete part of the release. Ravenna, Bari, Messina, Taranto and Brindisi are due to open new cruise terminals in 2027. Venezia-Marghera Canale Nord and Ancona follow in 2028, and La Spezia in 2029. Four of the eight replace existing buildings. The release puts the eight at €165 million.

That figure does not match the category table, where new terminals take €214.3 million, or almost €270 million with renewals. The gap between €214.3 million and €165 million is €49.3 million, by our arithmetic. The release offers no explanation, and the reprints do not attempt one. The two figures may count different things, such as works outside the eight named buildings, but no source says so, and this article does not guess.

The list itself has changed in a year. The 2025 edition promised eight new terminals by 2028 for about €190 million, naming Ravenna, Bari, Palermo, Messina, Ancona, La Spezia, Venice and Catania, according to Shipping Italy. In the 2026 list Palermo and Catania are gone, Taranto and Brindisi have joined, and La Spezia has moved to 2029. Neither release explains the changes.

Venice Marghera is the terminal with the clearest public trail. After big ships were barred from the Giudecca Canal, the port authority planned a new terminal on the Canale Nord in the industrial port. Shipping Italy reported in April 2025 that the land, about €16 million, had been bought, that an electrification contract was worth €18.5 million, and that works of over €67 million were at design stage, with two quays up to 300 metres and full operation planned for the 2028 season. The June 2026 Adriatic report put the two cruise berths at €72 million. Those figures come from earlier press reports and were not reopened here. Practical advice for the city is in the Venice travel guide, and the background is in Venice cruises five years after the big-ship ban.

Dredging takes €205.8 million, almost a fifth of the plan, more than the €165 million for the eight named terminals, though less than the €214.3 million terminals line. Dredging deepens channels and berths so that larger ships can enter. The release gives no port breakdown for it, and no source checked names which harbours will be dredged. The infrastructure line, the largest at €339.7 million, is equally unspecified by port.

Money by area, passengers by port

The regional split puts nearly half of the money in the Adriatic and Ionian seas. That area gets €500 million, or 47.5%. The Islands follow with €321.3 million, or 30.5%. The North Tyrrhenian gets €177.9 million, or 16.9%, and the Centre-South Tyrrhenian gets €53.2 million, or 5.06%.

The same release forecasts traffic that moves the other way in places. It expects the Islands to grow by 7.9% in 2027 and the Adriatic-Ionian area to dip by 0.7%. Risposte Turismo itself notes that the Adriatic-Ionian area will draw the largest share of investment despite a slight contraction in traffic. Part of the explanation is visible in the terminal list. Six of the eight new terminals, in Ravenna, Bari, Taranto, Brindisi, Venice and Ancona, are on the Adriatic or Ionian coast.

The ports that move the most passengers are elsewhere. For 2027 the release forecasts 3.8 million passenger movements and 990 calls at Civitavecchia, about 1.95 million at Naples, about 1.6 million at Genoa, over 1.2 million at Palermo and 845,000 at La Spezia. Civitavecchia and Naples together come to about 5.75 million, roughly 36% of the 16 million national forecast, by our arithmetic. Both sit on the central and southern Tyrrhenian coast, the area with the smallest investment share. The articles checked do not list which ports Risposte Turismo assigns to each area, so this reading of the map is ours.

The comparison has limits. The investment split is three years of planned euros by area. The traffic figures are one year of forecast passenger movements by port, and a passenger who starts or ends a cruise counts twice, once on boarding and once on leaving. A port can also carry its big projects outside the survey window. Civitavecchia's €81 million shore-power project, for instance, started in 2025 and was due to finish in 2026, before the 2027-2029 plan begins. The contrast raises a question about where capacity is being added. It does not show that any port is underfunded.

For the busiest ports the practical side is in the Rome travel guide, which covers Civitavecchia transfers, in the Naples travel guide, and in the Naples cruise port record and 2027 rebound.

What nobody measures

The Italian Cruise Watch is the only national source that tries to add up planned cruise-port investment, and it publishes its totals every October. What it does not publish is just as consistent. There is no list of the ports in the investment survey, no amount for any single port and no definition of the four categories. The 2027 traffic forecast is drawn from over 50 ports covering 92% of passengers and calls, but the release gives no matching sample description for the investment figures.

Nobody publishes a comparison of plans with spending. Each edition rolls three years forward, so a project that slips simply reappears in the next plan. The only spending figure found, €860 million invested in 2024-2026, came without a breakdown in a pre-event article and cannot be tested against the €1.6 billion planned for those years.

Shore power is measured even less well. There is no official national list of which cruise berths can supply electricity today, which are in testing, and which are waiting for an operator. The ministry, the recovery plan and a bank research centre each give a different total for the programme. Inside the cruise plan, the energy line changed its label between editions and no longer says whether it covers the quay.

The effects of all this spending are not measured either. No source checked reports how many ship calls actually used shore power, how much was spent ashore per cruise passenger, or how new terminals changed traffic at the ports that built them. Our Italy cruise statistics article found the same pattern in the traffic data, where forecasts and totals are plentiful and outcomes are scarce.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers booking cruises calling in Italy in 2027 and 2028 can expect building work at several ports, with new terminals due at Ravenna, Bari, Messina, Taranto and Brindisi in 2027 and at Venice Marghera and Ancona in 2028. Turnaround passengers at those ports should check which terminal their line uses before arranging transfers. Shore power will not be universal by then. A ship running its engines at berth in 2027 or 2028 is not breaching the EU shore-power obligation, which for ships starts on 1 January 2030.

Tourism businesses and investors should treat the €1.05 billion as a statement of intent from port authorities, with no contracts behind it in the published data. The terminal list has already shifted once in a year, with Palermo and Catania dropped and La Spezia pushed to 2029, and businesses planning around a new terminal should follow the port authority's own tender and works announcements. Shore power is the clearest regulatory deadline. The operator decision pending at Savona (port authority, July 2026), and the operating framework still unclear at Trieste in a May 2026 press report, will show how the plants are run and charged. The €570 million state aid scheme to 2033 is designed to encourage ships to use shore power.

Journalists and analysts can cite these figures with their sources: over €1.05 billion planned for 2027-2029 (Risposte Turismo, October 2026); four named categories totalling €979.3 million; Adriatic-Ionian €500 million, or 47.5%; eight new terminals for €165 million; about €1.6 billion planned for 2024-2026 in the 2023 edition; the AFIR shore-power deadline of 31 December 2029; and the FuelEU at-berth obligation from 1 January 2030. They should not repeat that the €219.5 million fuels line is shore power, that Italy has a €700 million cold-ironing programme, that AFIR's deadline is 1 January 2030, that the categories sum to the total, or that the €165 million is the new-terminals line. National cold-ironing totals of €400 million, over €800 million and €988 million should always carry their source and date.