Definition
A cruise passenger is a passenger on a cruise ship. Port statistics count each cruise passenger at every port where the ship calls, whether the voyage starts or ends there or the passenger only goes ashore for a few hours.
There are two types. A home port cruise passenger embarks or disembarks at that port, and usually arrives earlier or stays on afterwards, so uses the city’s airport and hotels. A transit cruise passenger visits the city during the call and returns to the ship the same day.
As the same person is counted at each call on the itinerary, the sum of cruise passengers across all ports is higher than the number of people who took a cruise. The figure is read alongside the number of cruise ship calls.
The figure · August 2026
Year to date · January–August 2026
9.22 million cruise passengers
August 2026 only
1.51 million cruise passengers
First port
2.84 million cruise passengers
Cruise calls
3,286 calls
Cruise traffic in Spanish ports in 2026
Spanish ports received 9.22 million cruise passengers in the year to August 2026, 3.5% more than in the same period of 2025. In August alone, the figure was 1.51 million cruise passengers, 13.1% more than in August 2025.
The full ranking, the trend and the table are in the indicator Cruise traffic in Spanish ports. To explore the data in detail, see PortStats · cruise passengers by port, annual series.