Cruise traffic in Spanish ports in 2024: the year in review

Spanish ports received 12.8 million cruise passengers in 2024, 6.9% more than in 2023 (824,844 cruise passengers more). This is the year-end balance according to Puertos del Estado’s monthly statistics, with December data for the 28 port authorities.

The high point of the 2012–2025 series is 2025, with 14.1 million cruise passengers: 2024 was 9% below it and ranks 2nd of the 14 years with data. At the end of 2024 it was the highest figure in the series, which starts in 2012; it was later exceeded in 2025.

In the 2024 ranking, the ports moving up on 2023 are Alicante (from 10th to 9th) and Cartagena (from 11th to 10th). The top three positions are unchanged.

Cruise calls: 4,700 calls in 2024, 4.4% more than in 2023. Barcelona ranks first on this measure, with 791 calls.

Barcelona ranks first among port authorities with 3.66 million cruise passengers in 2024 (2.4% more than in 2023). It is followed by Baleares (2.5 million) and Las Palmas (1.87 million). Together, the three account for 62.5% of the total.

The largest increases were recorded by A Coruña (+25.5%), Cartagena (+24.4%) and Las Palmas (+23.8%); the steepest falls by Bilbao (−7.8%), Málaga (−6.7%) and Vigo (−3.7%). The comparison is limited to port authorities that account for at least 1% of the total, so that an extreme swing at a small player does not distort the picture.

The rest of the top ten are Santa Cruz de Tenerife (4th, 1.32 million, +19.0%), Valencia (5th, 774,067 cruise passengers, −1.6%), Bahía de Cádiz (6th, 696,146 cruise passengers, +2.4%), Málaga (7th, 469,949 cruise passengers, −6.7%), A Coruña (8th, 406,613 cruise passengers, +25.5%), Alicante (9th, 234,659 cruise passengers, +19.7%) and Cartagena (10th, 219,432 cruise passengers, +24.4%).

At the bottom of the table are Pasaia (1,090 cruise passengers), Marín y Ría de Pontevedra (765 cruise passengers) and Castellón (743 cruise passengers), out of a total of 28 port authorities with data.

The distribution is highly concentrated: the top five account for 78.8% of the total and 6 port authorities are enough to reach 80%, while the other 18 port authorities further down share the remaining 5.4%. 18 of the 26 port authorities with a comparison grew compared with 2023, 15 of them by double digits, and 8 fell.

Of the 12 months of 2024 with data, 9 are above the same month of 2023 and 3 below; over the last three months (October, November, December) the figure is up 7.8% on the same months of 2023; the largest year-on-year difference was in November (up 22.9%); the highest point in the series was November, at 1.43 M, and the lowest February, at 521,597.

Between 2012 and 2024 the figure went from 7.6 M to 12.8 M, an increase of 69% over 12 years (+4.5% a year on average); the last year is the high point of the series and the low was 2020 (1.37 M).

Puertos del Estado counts each cruise passenger at every port where they embark, disembark or are in transit, so the same passenger can be counted at several ports on an itinerary. Calls are the arrivals of cruise ships. Passengers per call indicate the average size of the ships each port receives.

Puertos del Estado. To explore the data in detail, use PortStats · cruise passengers by port, annual series or see the original source.