Italy's Cruise Ports Hit a Record in 2025, With Two National Totals, a Missed Forecast and a Shrinking Venice

What the 14.74 million counts

Risposte Turismo's annual Speciale Crociere report defines passeggeri movimentati as the sum of embarkations, disembarkations and transits. A turnaround passenger, who starts and finishes a cruise in the same Italian port, counts twice. A transit passenger counts once at every Italian port the ship calls at. A seven-night cruise that starts in Civitavecchia and calls at Naples, Messina and Livorno can therefore add five movements for one person. Il Sole 24 Ore made the same point in July 2026 when it described the figures as movements and not unique travelers.

On that basis, the national series is clear. Risposte Turismo's 2025 report gives 12.27 million movements in 2019, 13.79 million in 2023 and 14,224,548 in 2024. Seatrade Cruise News reported Risposte Turismo's 2025 figure as 14.74 million, up 3.6%, on 5,696 calls, up 8.5%. Each of 2023, 2024 and 2025 exceeded the year before, so 2025 is the third record year in a row in this series. We could not open Risposte Turismo's own 2025 release, so the 2025 figure here is as reported.

Calls grew faster than passengers. Seatrade reported 2,588 passengers per call in 2025, down from 2,709 in 2024. The 8.5% growth in calls also implies a 2024 base of about 5,250 calls, higher than the 5,127 in Risposte Turismo's own 2025 report, which suggests the 2024 call count was revised. Some coverage rounds the year to 15 million. That is a rounding of 14.74 million.

Cemar's count is the second national total. Shipping Italy reported on 19 January 2026 that Cemar recorded 14,789,318 movements, up 4.05%, on 5,519 calls in 72 ports. Risposte Turismo says about 60 ports handled 98% of passengers and 92% of calls. Forbes Italia wrote 62 ports. Cemar says its counts of passengers received at the quayside are checked day by day, but it does not publish a definition of a movement. Its head, Sergio Senesi, said the outturn was in line with Cemar's March 2025 forecast. The two series agree on the direction and roughly on the size. They disagree on calls by almost 180, which matters for any per-call figure.

Italy's share of Mediterranean cruising is quoted four ways. Risposte Turismo's first Maritime Tourism report, as reported by Il Sole 24 Ore and Shipping Italy in July 2026, put Italy at 35% of Mediterranean cruise traffic without a stated denominator. MedCruise, the association of Mediterranean cruise ports, put Italian member ports at 27.29% of 39.75 million movements at member ports in 2025, as reported by Seatrade on 29 April 2026. Seatrade also reported Risposte Turismo as saying eight Italian ports in the Mediterranean top 20 account for 40% of Mediterranean passenger traffic. Cruise & Ferry, reporting the same 2026 Cruise Special on 3 April 2026, gave those eight ports 38% of traffic across the leading Mediterranean destinations. The bases differ and cannot be reconciled from what was published. A fifth figure, Italy's roughly 28% share of Europe, is CLIA's estimate of economic impact (EUR18.1 billion of about EUR64 billion in 2024, as reported by Siviaggia on 31 March 2026). It is not a share of passengers.

Three ports carry almost half the traffic

The national total hides a steep concentration. Using Cemar's 2025 figures for both the ports and the total, Civitavecchia, Naples and Genoa handled about 7.03 million of 14.79 million movements, or 47.6%. The top five handled 59.6% and the top ten 82.0%. These shares are our calculation. The Bank of Italy's regional report on Lazio, as reported by Ports Europe in June 2026, said Civitavecchia alone handled around a quarter of national cruise traffic. Our figure from Cemar's numbers is 24.0%.

Naples is the clear second port. Risposte Turismo counted 1,736,089 movements in 2024, and Cemar 1,846,000 in 2025. Readers planning a port day there can start with our Naples travel guide. Genoa is third, at 1,630,000 in Cemar's count. Stazioni Marittime, the terminal company at Genoa in which MSC holds control, gave 1,630,593 movements on 334 calls, with 620,195 home-port and 1,010,398 transit movements, as reported by Shipping Italy on 14 January 2026. Its counting basis is not stated. A separate figure of 2.3 million for Genoa, which appeared in Siviaggia's 31 March 2026 coverage of CLIA data, does not match either series and is unexplained.

Below the top three, the order shifts from year to year. Livorno, the port for Florence and Pisa, rose from 638,025 in 2023 to 864,133 in 2024 in Risposte Turismo's series, then counted 773,000 in Cemar's 2025 figures. Cagliari jumped to 573,933 in 2024 and fell to 477,000 in 2025. Swings of this size at a single port appear in both series, so one year's change says little on its own. Part of the 2024 to 2025 difference may also come from the switch between publishers.

Our own planning notes carried a Palermo forecast of 970,000 for 2026. We could not find it in any source. It matches Palermo's 2024 actual of 969,165. Cemar counted 990,000 in 2025, and Risposte Turismo, as reported, expects more than 1.2 million in 2027.

Civitavecchia's record, half of it in transit

The port authority for the central-northern Tyrrhenian Sea (AdSP MTCS) reported on 16 January 2026 that Civitavecchia handled 3,556,559 cruise passenger movements in 2025, up 2.81% from 3,459,184. Ship calls rose 2.5% to 862. The release splits the total. Transit movements were 1,829,701, up 5.40%. Embarkations and disembarkations together were 1,726,858. The release says that is up about 1%; on its own figures for 2024, the rise is 0.2%. The two parts add up to the total exactly. On our calculation, 51.4% of movements were transit and 48.6% were turnaround.

The turnaround figure is often quoted as 1.72 million home-port passengers. That is a mislabel, and our own plan made it. Each turnaround passenger appears once when boarding and once when leaving the ship. The number of people who started or ended a cruise at Civitavecchia is therefore lower than 1,726,858, and the release does not give it.

Our planning notes also carried a 2019 figure of about 2.5 million for the port. Shipping Italy (10 November 2023) and Eunews (16 February 2024) quoted 2.69 million. That figure does not reconcile with the growth rates Risposte Turismo published for 2023 against 2019, so this article gives no 2019 figure for Civitavecchia.

Port authority president Raffaele Latrofa said the record "is not only a statistical result." John Portelli, general director of Roma Cruise Terminal, said the terminal company has handled almost 42 million passengers at the port since 2007.

The first half of 2026 ran ahead of every forecast. Shipping Italy reported 1,553,155 movements in January to June, up 8.9%. Risposte Turismo's spring forecast for the full year was 3.7 million, up 4%, on 900 calls, as reported by Seatrade. A forecast of 3.78 million appeared in ecoseven's 15 April 2026 report on the port authority's presentation at Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami, and in Ports Europe on 16 April 2026. In the same ecoseven report, Latrofa set a target of 4 million passengers within three years. Risposte Turismo's October 2026 forecast for 2027, as reported, is 3.8 million on 990 calls.

Is Civitavecchia first or second in the Mediterranean?

Risposte Turismo's 2026 Cruise Special ranked the Mediterranean's top 20 cruise ports for 2025. Cruise & Ferry reported on 3 April 2026 that Barcelona led with 3.99 million movements, Civitavecchia followed with 3.5 million and Marseille was third with 2.63 million. The top 20 together handled more than 28.8 million movements on more than 9,800 calls. On those rounded figures, Barcelona's lead over Civitavecchia is about 490,000 on our calculation. Our planning notes had said about 440,000. That figure was not found in any source.

Port-side coverage tells a different story. ecoseven's 15 April 2026 report on the port authority's Seatrade presentation in Miami described Civitavecchia as Italy's leading cruise port and "at the top of the Mediterranean." The phrase is the outlet's, in a story built on the authority's presentation, and no series was named. In a September 2025 Italpress interview, Latrofa called the port one of the world leaders, with no ranking. The only published Mediterranean ranking we found puts Barcelona ahead. We treat a first-place claim as unverified.

How many cruise passengers reach Rome?

No source we found measures it. Treating the port's movement count as a count of visitors to Rome is not supported by the port's data. Turnaround movements count people boarding or leaving a ship, and the release does not say where they go next. Transit passengers may stay on board, stay in Civitavecchia or travel to Rome, and no one publishes the split. A Risposte Turismo release on 2023 traffic said only that transit passengers on shore visits made up 51% of the total. That defines a category and does not count arrivals in Rome.

For travelers, the practical facts come from the port's mobility website. A shuttle runs from the cruise terminals to Civitavecchia station for EUR6 each way on ship days. Regional trains to Roma Termini cost EUR5.00, and Intercity trains EUR11 in second class. These fares were not date-stamped on the site and should be checked before travel. Our Rome travel guide covers what to see once there. Whether Rome's hotel tax applies to cruise day visitors could not be verified. The city's rate page ties it to overnight stays.

The forecast record

Forecasts are the loudest numbers in Italian cruise coverage. Each February or spring and each October, Risposte Turismo publishes a projection for the year ahead, and outlets often headline it as a record before the year begins. The track record is mixed.

In February 2025, Risposte Turismo's Speciale Crociere forecast 15.29 million movements for 2025 on 5,430 calls, up 7.5%. The reported outturn was 14.74 million, about 550,000 or 3.6% below the forecast. Calls went the other way and beat the forecast by more than 250. Port forecasts missed too. The February 2025 projection for Naples was 2.1 million; Cemar counted 1.846 million, and Risposte Turismo's Maritime Tourism report, as reported by Shipping Italy, gave 1.85 million. Messina was forecast at about 796,000 and Cemar counted 742,000. Cemar's own national forecast from March 2025, 14.8 million, matched its count of 14,789,318. That is a forecaster checking against its own series, so it shows consistency more than accuracy against an independent measure.

The 2026 forecast has drifted. Risposte Turismo said 15.4 million in October 2025, as reported by Teleborsa, and 15.31 million in spring 2026, as reported by Seatrade. In October 2026, several outlets back-calculated a 2026 closing estimate of about 15.4 million from the growth rates Risposte Turismo published for 2027. Cemar forecast 15.1 million. For 2027, Risposte Turismo's Italian Cruise Watch, presented at the Italian Cruise Day in Livorno on 23 October 2026, projects about 16 million movements, up about 4%, on over 6,370 calls, as reported by Shipping Italy, Corriere Marittimo and others. The release itself shows the figures as images, and we did not open it. A 2027 figure of 16 million would be about 30% above 2019. Our record watch for Italy's 2026 tourism year tracks how other 2026 forecasts are holding up.

Regional forecasts for 2027 point south. Coverage of the Italian Cruise Watch reported Campania up 15.7% to over 2.5 million, with Naples at 1.95 million, up 11.4%. Palermo is forecast up 19.8% and Salerno up 31.7% to 530,000. The Adriatic and Ionian ports are forecast down 0.7%, with Venice at about 500,000 in one outlet's reading.

Venice after the 2021 ban

Decree-Law 103 of 20 July 2021 declared St. Mark's Basin, the St. Mark's Canal and the Giudecca Canal national monuments. From 1 August 2021, it barred ships from transiting them if they meet any one of four conditions. A ship is barred if it is above 25,000 gross tons, has a hull longer than 180 meters at the waterline, has an air draft above 35 meters (mixed sail-and-motor ships excepted), or burns fuel with 0.1% sulphur or more while maneuvering. The consolidated text on Normattiva confirms those thresholds. The decree did not ban cruising in Venice. Smaller ships still use the Marittima terminal. Larger ships used temporary berths at Marghera from September 2022, as reported by Seatrade. A permanent cruise terminal on the Canale Nord at Marghera is not expected before mid-2028, according to Shipping Italy in July 2025. Headlines that say Italy banned cruise ships from Venice overstate what the law does.

What happened to passenger numbers depends on which series you read. For 2019, a 2021 article on lavoce.info gave about 1.6 million passengers without a named source. Venezia Terminal Passeggeri (VTP), the terminal operator, quoted the president of the Lagoon Authority in March 2025 as saying almost two million passengers came in 2018 and 2019. For 2024, VTP reported 634,000 passengers on 492 calls. Risposte Turismo's figure for the same year was an estimate of 540,000. For 2025, VTP's spring forecast was 644,000, and Cemar counted 584,000.

For 2026, VTP expects 543,000 ocean and river cruise passengers, 12% fewer than in 2025, on 366 calls, as reported by Shipping Italy on 17 March 2026. VTP's president and chief executive, Fabrizio Spagna, presented the season. Counting hydrofoils as well, VTP expects 592,000 against 664,000 in 2025. Home-port calls will exceed 95% of the total. At nearby Chioggia, VTP expects 35,000 passengers on 23 calls, up from 24,000. Our planning notes and queue had carried a 2026 figure of about 530,000, down 9%, attributed to Risposte Turismo via Seatrade. Neither number appears in anything we opened. VTP's figure is 543,000, down 12%.

The environmental figures need the same care. Transport & Environment's June 2023 report, The return of the cruise, found Venice was the European port most polluted by cruise ships in 2019 and had dropped to 41st by 2022. It reported an 80% fall in sulphur oxide emissions from cruise ships around Venice between 2019 and 2022. T&E attributes the fall to the 2021 ban. Its comparison year, 2022, was also a year of post-pandemic recovery for cruising, which the report does not separate out. The report also describes the measure as a ban on cruise ships above 25,000 GT entering the city's waters, which is broader than the decree's text covering St. Mark's Basin, the St. Mark's Canal and the Giudecca Canal. In the same ranking for 2022, Civitavecchia was second in Europe with 16,307 kilograms of cruise sulphur oxides, behind Barcelona.

Venice also charges an access fee to day-trippers on set days. Our analysis of the Venice access fee results covers what the fee has and has not measured. Our Venice travel guide covers getting around the city.

EUR1.05 billion, of which 93% is itemized

Risposte Turismo's Italian Cruise Watch reports more than EUR1.05 billion of planned investment in Italian cruise ports for 2027 to 2029, across about 30 ports. Blue Economy gave EUR1.052 billion. The breakdown by area adds up. The Adriatic and Ionian ports account for EUR500 million, the islands EUR321.3 million, the northern Tyrrhenian EUR177.9 million and the central and southern Tyrrhenian EUR53.2 million, for EUR1,052.4 million.

The breakdown by type is only partly itemized. Berths, bollards and dolphins come to EUR339.7 million, refueling and alternative fuels EUR219.5 million, new terminals EUR214.3 million and dredging EUR205.8 million. Those four categories add up to EUR979.3 million, or 93.2% by the shares Corriere Marittimo published on 23 October 2026; the remaining 6.8%, about EUR73 million, is not itemized in the coverage we read. Eight new terminals worth EUR165 million are planned by 2029, at Ravenna, Bari, Messina, Taranto and Brindisi in 2027, Venice-Marghera and Ancona in 2028, and La Spezia in 2029.

The EUR219.5 million line has two labels. Corriere Marittimo and Economia del Mare call it refueling and alternative fuels. Blue Economy calls it LNG and shore power. Without the primary release, it cannot be counted as spending on shore power.

Shore power, which lets ships plug in at berth and switch off their engines, is where the gap between plans and outcomes is clearest. Civitavecchia has an EUR81 million project funded by Italy's recovery plan for nine berths, three of them for large cruise ships. The first stone was laid on 13 February 2025, with completion scheduled for June 2026, according to ecoseven. We found no confirmation that it is in operation. Genoa's EUR20 million electrification of six berths had a completion forecast of June 2026, and its port authority page showed only the substation as complete. Savona's port authority announced in July 2026 that its works had concluded, without saying whether any ship had connected.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers on a cruise that calls in Italy will most likely start or call at Civitavecchia, Naples or Genoa, the three ports that handle almost half of Italy's traffic. Civitavecchia handled 862 calls in 2025, and its first half of 2026 ran 8.9% ahead of the year before. Plan the train into Rome with time to spare, check fares on the day, and treat any count of cruise visitors to Rome as unmeasured. In Venice, large ships no longer pass St. Mark's, and the terminal operator expects fewer passengers in 2026. If your trip also involves flying into Italy from outside the EU, our guide to the new EU border checks explains what to expect.

Tourism businesses and investors should read the national total as a measure of port activity. It does not count people and does not show spending ashore. Turnaround passengers generate hotel nights and transfers, and transit passengers generate tours and day spending. The split matters more than the headline. In the material we found, only Civitavecchia and Genoa publish it, and Venice's operator gives a home-port share of over 95% of calls (Shipping Italy, 17 March 2026). Forecasts deserve a margin. Risposte Turismo's 2025 forecast was 3.6% too high, while Civitavecchia's first half of 2026 grew faster (8.9%) than its full-year forecast (4%). The EUR1.05 billion pipeline is a statement of intent; its breakdown by type is not fully itemized, and shore power at the largest ports was not confirmed as operating by October 2026.

Journalists and analysts can use the figures in the box above, each with its series named. Italy's share of Mediterranean cruising should not be quoted without its base. This is the sixth article in our insights series to reach the same finding. Rules, forecasts and investment plans are published. Measured local effects, such as spending ashore, the share of passengers who go ashore and where they go, are not.