Naples Cruise Port: 1.85 Million in 2025, 250,000 Below Forecast, and No Published Count for 2026

What a Naples cruise passenger figure counts

Every figure in this article is a count of passenger movements. Risposte Turismo defines it as the sum of embarkations, disembarkations and transits. A passenger who starts a cruise in Naples and ends it in Naples a week later counts twice. A passenger whose ship calls for a day counts once. So 1,850,014 movements is a smaller number of people, and the gap depends on the mix.

In Naples the mix is lopsided. Of the 2025 total, 1,584,968 movements were transits and 265,046 were embarkations and disembarkations, according to Table 6 of the Risposte Turismo report. Transits were 85.7% of the total, on our arithmetic. In 2024 the split was 1,499,068 transits and 237,021 embarkations and disembarkations, a transit share of 86.3%. Naples is mainly a port of call. Most of the people behind the figure are on a ship that stays for the day.

Scope matters too. Risposte Turismo's "Napoli" is the port of Naples alone; Salerno appears as a separate row with 126,613 movements in 2025. The port authority, the Autorità di Sistema Portuale del Mar Tirreno Centrale, runs Naples, Salerno and Castellammare di Stabia, and some of its figures cover all three. Its April 2025 release said the Campania ports went from 263,000 cruise passengers in 2021 to over 1,826,000 in 2024. That 2024 figure is a port-system total. It is not comparable with Risposte Turismo's 1,736,089 for Naples in 2024.

The national picture uses the same unit. Risposte Turismo counted 14,742,938 movements across 62 Italian ports in 2025, and Cemar about 14.79 million across 72. Naples was 12.5% of the national total on either basis. Our article on Italy's cruise ports covers the two national series and why they should not be mixed.

The unit also sets limits on comparison with other Naples statistics. Hotel and rental statistics count nights spent by guests, and airport statistics count arriving and departing passengers. A cruise transit is neither. A passenger who sleeps on the ship adds one movement to the port figure and nothing to the city's accommodation count. The three series cannot be added together, and a rise in one says nothing direct about the others.

The 2025 high, and the forecast it missed

The 2025 figure stands on two counts that agree. Risposte Turismo gives 1,850,014 movements and 538 ship calls. Cemar, reported by Shipping Italy on 19 January 2026 as its final count, gives 1,846,000 and second place in Italy behind Civitavecchia. The two are 4,014 apart, about 0.2%.

Is 2025 a record? The sources we opened do not say so. Risposte Turismo's 2026 report never uses the word for Naples. Its table of ports expected to set records in 2026 names eight, and Naples is not among them. What the data do show is a ranking within one series. Risposte Turismo indexes Naples to 2016, when the port handled 1,306,151 movements. The index for 2025 is 1.42, the highest value from 2016 to 2025. The 2015 figure in the previous report is 1,269,571, also lower. So 2025 is the highest year in the Risposte Turismo series back to 2015. We did not check earlier years.

The index also gives an approximate path. On our arithmetic it implies about 1.36 million movements in 2019, a near-total collapse in 2020 (index 0.02), about 1.15 million in 2022 and about 1.65 million in 2023. These are rounded index values multiplied out, not published counts. Taken that way, 2025 was roughly 36% above 2019.

Calls grew faster than passengers. Naples had 538 cruise ship calls in 2025, up 15.45% from 466. Passengers per call fell from about 3,726 to about 3,439, a drop of 7.7% on our arithmetic. More ships came, and on average each brought fewer passengers. The sources do not say why. A change in the mix of ship sizes would produce that pattern, but no source we opened breaks it down.

The two parts of the total also grew at different speeds. Embarkations and disembarkations rose from 237,021 to 265,046, up 11.8% on our arithmetic. Transits rose from 1,499,068 to 1,584,968, up 5.7%. The turnaround side is the smaller part, but it grew about twice as fast. It still made up only 14.3% of the 2025 total, so Naples remained a port of call first.

Naples also kept its place abroad. Risposte Turismo's Table 1 ranks the top 20 Mediterranean cruise ports. Naples was fifth, behind Barcelona (3,999,258), Civitavecchia (3,556,559), Marseille (2,634,780) and Palma (1,951,033). Piraeus was sixth with 1,850,000, a rounded figure taken from a port-authority press release. That puts Naples 14 movements ahead, which is too small a margin to call a lead.

The forecasts for 2025 were higher. In February 2025, Risposte Turismo forecast 2,100,000 movements and 568 calls for Naples in 2025, growth of 21.0%. Its report said the port would pass 2 million cruise passengers, "un primato per il porto stesso", a first for the port. On 8 April 2025, at Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami, the port authority said in a release that Naples would pass 2 million cruise passengers for the first time in its history. At the same fair, Cemar forecast 1.9 million.

The outcome was 1,850,014. The Risposte Turismo forecast was 249,986 too high, an overestimate of 11.9% of the forecast. Growth came in at 6.56% against the 21.0% expected. Calls came in at 538 against 568. Naples did not pass 2 million, and the gap to that line was about 150,000. Cemar's forecast of 1.9 million was much closer to its own count of 1,846,000, a gap of 54,000.

The optimism lasted most of the year. When Risposte Turismo published its autumn outlook on 24 October 2025, it forecast about 1.9 million for Naples in 2026, a fall of 5.9%. A 5.9% fall to 1.9 million implies the firm still expected about 2.02 million for 2025 two months before the year closed. The actual was about 169,000 lower. That implied 2025 figure is our arithmetic on rounded numbers, so treat it as approximate.

2026: a forecast fall and a claimed rise

The two forecasts published in 2026 both point down. In March 2026, Risposte Turismo cut its Naples forecast to 1,750,000 movements and 510 calls, falls of 5.4% and 5.2% on 2025. That was 150,000 below the 1.9 million it had forecast five months earlier. In April 2026, Cemar forecast about 1.78 million, which is 3.6% below its own 2025 count on our arithmetic. Neither source explains the expected fall for Naples in the reports we opened.

The only in-year data point from Risposte Turismo is a sentence. On 13 October 2026, Economia del Mare reported the firm's preliminary summer figures. Italy handled over 6.1 million movements in June to August, up 4.5%, with 2,314 calls, up 14.9%. The Central and Southern Tyrrhenian area grew most, by 214,000 movements and 162 calls, "driven by the performance of Salerno and Civitavecchia, which offset the contraction of Naples" (our translation). The report gives no number for Naples.

Two weeks later the port authority said the opposite. On 27 October 2026, at the maiden call of MSC Euribia, port authority president Eliseo Cuccaro said that according to actual figures to 30 September, Naples was the Italian port growing most year on year in cruise flows, at plus 14%. ANSA reported the statement. It gave no count, no prior-year figure, and did not say whether the 14% refers to passengers or to ship calls.

We cannot reconcile these and we do not try. They may measure different things. Calls and passengers moved in different directions in 2025, so a rise in one and a fall in the other is possible. They also cover different periods: June to August for the contraction, January to September for the 14%. What we can say is which is which. The fall comes from an independent forecaster, as a forecast and as a summer comparison without a number. The rise comes from the port authority, as a spoken claim without a number or a metric. No 2026 count for Naples has been published in anything we opened.

The count should appear on the usual timetable. Cemar published its final 2025 figures on 19 January 2026, and Risposte Turismo published its port tables in March 2026. If they keep to that pattern, the first full count for Naples in 2026 will appear early in 2027. Until then, any statement that Naples rose or fell in 2026 rests on a forecast, a partial comparison or a claim without a figure.

Two other events in 2026 are sometimes linked to Naples tourism. An earthquake of reported magnitude 4.7 struck the Campi Flegrei area west of Naples on 31 July 2026. None of the coverage we reviewed links it to cruise calls in Naples. Naples Capodichino airport is closed from 1 to 30 November 2026 for runway works, with some flights moved to Salerno, according to AGI. The AGI report does not mention cruise passengers or the port. Our article on Salerno airport covers that airport's own numbers. Neither event has a measured effect on cruise traffic.

2027: a forecast rebound, and investment without a Naples line

The 2027 figure comes from Risposte Turismo's Italian Cruise Watch, presented at the 13th Italian Cruise Day in Livorno on 23 October 2026. We read it through two press reports, Corriere Marittimo and Shipping Italy, both dated that day. The firm's own 2026 report was not available to us. Its forecast for Naples is 1.95 million movements in 2027, up 11.4%, second in Italy after Civitavecchia and ahead of Genoa.

The 11.4% is measured against Risposte Turismo's expected 2026 value. Working backwards, 1.95 million at 11.4% growth implies a 2026 base of about 1.75 million, in line with the March forecast (our arithmetic on rounded figures). The October report does not state its 2026 value for Naples. Against the 2025 actual, 1.95 million would be about 5.4% higher and about 100,000 above the 2025 high. If it happens, it would be the highest year in the Risposte Turismo series. It is still a forecast, built on a 2026 base that is also an estimate.

The national forecast gives the context. Risposte Turismo expects about 16 million movements in Italy in 2027, up 4%, and over 6,370 calls. On those two forecasts, Naples would hold about 12.2% of the national total, close to its 12.5% share in 2025. Other ports are forecast to grow faster. Palermo is expected to pass 1.2 million, up 19.8%, and La Spezia to reach 845,000, up 12.6%. Civitavecchia stays far ahead at 3.8 million. Risposte Turismo expects nine Italian ports to reach their highest traffic on record in 2027, and Corriere Marittimo's report of the presentation lists Naples among them. That is a forecast. It also implies the firm expects 1.95 million to beat every earlier Naples year in its data.

Nearby, Salerno is the fastest riser. Risposte Turismo forecasts 530,000 movements there in 2027, up 31.7%, which implies about 402,000 in 2026 against 126,613 in 2025. Its March forecast for Salerno in 2026 was 300,000. Salerno is a separate port with its own counts, and we keep it out of every Naples figure. It matters for the same reason the summer preview mentions it: within the area, growth at Salerno offset the contraction at Naples.

The investment figure is national. Risposte Turismo counts over EUR 1 billion of planned cruise-related port investment for 2027 to 2029. By type, infrastructure is EUR 339.7 million, refuelling and alternative fuels EUR 219.5 million, new cruise terminals EUR 214.3 million and dredging EUR 205.8 million. Those four add up to EUR 979.3 million, so about EUR 73 million is not itemised in the reports we read. By area, the Central and Southern Tyrrhenian gets EUR 53.2 million, 5.06% of the total. That area includes Naples, Salerno, Civitavecchia and other ports. No Naples figure is published.

One Naples project does have a contract. Port authority Delibera 42/2026, dated 18 February 2026, refers to the cold-ironing contract for the Port of Naples, signed on 15 November 2024 under Delibera 89/2024. Cold ironing means plugging ships into the shore grid so they can switch off their engines at the quay. The contract is worth EUR 18,279,648.89: EUR 17,799,302.50 for works, EUR 294,859.95 for engineering and EUR 185,486.44 for safety costs. The contractor is a group led by Gemmo. It sits within a framework for quay electrification with a ceiling of EUR 57,324,959.84. The February 2026 resolution authorised a EUR 1,247,050.37 subcontract for an electrical substation and cable ducts.

The document describes the scope as electrifying the quays of the Port of Naples. It does not say which berths, so we cannot say how much of it serves cruise ships. It names no funding source and no completion date. No source we opened confirms that shore power is operating for cruise ships in Naples. The separate figure of about EUR 1 billion that the port authority cited in April 2025 covers PNRR-funded works across all its ports and is not a cruise budget.

What is not measured

The biggest gap is 2026. There is a forecast, a summer sentence and a spoken percentage, and there is no count. The port authority's statement refers to actual figures to 30 September, so a count exists somewhere. It has not been published in anything we found.

There is also no count of what happens on shore. Of 1,584,968 transit movements in 2025, nobody publishes how many passengers left the ship, how many stayed in the city, how many took an excursion to Pompeii, Capri or Sorrento, or what they spent. The port's figures stop at the gangway. Visitor counts at Pompeii are ticket sales for the archaeological park and say nothing about how visitors arrived. Our piece on three Naples tourism numbers that don't agree shows how far apart the city's other counts already are. A further figure of "almost 1.5 million" cruise passengers for Naples, attributed to the research centre SRM in a report by Il Sole 24 Ore on 19 February 2026, is about 350,000 below both port-supplied counts. Its scope is not clear and we do not use it.

The sources also leave the Naples definition partly open. Risposte Turismo lists Naples and Salerno separately, which tells us its Naples row is the port of Naples. Cemar does not state its method in the coverage we read. We found no annual Naples table from the port authority or from Assoporti, the national ports association, to check either series against. Years before 2015 were not checked, so the 2025 high is a high within one series.

The calendar inside the year is also missing. Neither Risposte Turismo nor Cemar publishes a monthly series for Naples in the material we read. There is no public breakdown of calls by cruise line, by ship size or by day of the week. That is why the fall in passengers per call in 2025 has no published explanation, and why the summer contraction and the January to September rise cannot be placed side by side on the same months.

Finally, the reasons are missing. No source explains why the 2025 forecasts were so high, why passengers per call fell, why Risposte Turismo expects a fall in 2026, or why it expects an 11.4% rise in 2027. Risposte Turismo builds its outlook from forecasts for more than 50 ports, according to Il Sole 24 Ore, and the published reports do not show those inputs.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers booking a cruise that calls at Naples are part of a port that handled 538 calls in 2025, most of them day calls. The numbers say little about crowding on any given day, because no daily or monthly series is published. What they do say is that 85.7% of the traffic is transit, so most of these passengers have a single day in port. Our Naples travel guide and things to do in Naples cover a day ashore. For a day on the island, start with the Capri travel guide. If you are starting or ending a cruise in Naples, you are among the 265,046 embarkation and disembarkation movements, and where to stay in Naples covers a night before or after.

Businesses planning around cruise demand in Naples should read the forecasts with their record in mind. The February 2025 forecast was 249,986 too high, and the autumn 2025 outlook still implied about 2.02 million for a year that closed at 1.85 million. Cemar's forecast was closer in 2025. For 2026 the two sources that publish numbers both expect a fall, and the port authority says the opposite without a number. A business that needs a Naples figure for 2026 has none to use yet. The cold-ironing contract is real, but nothing published says when or where cruise ships will be able to plug in.

Analysts will find the citable figures in the box above, with their series and scope. Naples was second in Italy and fifth in the Mediterranean in 2025, and the February 2025 forecast of 2,100,000 missed by 249,986. Do not repeat these claims: that Naples passed 2 million cruise passengers; that 2025 was an all-time record; that Naples had "almost 1.5 million" cruise passengers in 2025; that cruise passengers rose 14% in 2026, since the metric is not named; any Naples share of the EUR 1 billion national investment; or that cruise ships in Naples use shore power.