(Finance) – Maritime stations, the company that manages the cruise and ferry terminals of port of Genoain 2023 recorded a double record for the total number of passengers and cruise passengers. In fact, 2023 ended with a historic record, given that in the terminals managed by the company over 4 million passengers passed through (4,048,777), surpassing 2010 by 467 thousand units (+13%), which had represented the last record year with its 3,581,864.
Cruises in particular with 1.7 million passengers, given that it exceeds 2019 by over 349 thousand units (+26%), which represented the last record year with 1.35 million passengers, before the pandemic paralyzed everything. Compared to 2022, overall growth was 24.34%: in cruises by 57.11% and in ferries, which reached 2,350,138 passengers, by 8.05%.
The first operator is confirmed MSC Crociere with 1 million and 350 thousand passengers, followed by Costa Crociere who called weekly with a ship for the entire season the port of Genoa carrying 239 thousand passengers with 36 calls. Third place for Royal Caribbean group which with the ships of Royal Caribbean Int., Celebrity Cruises and Silversea brought 20 calls and almost 51,000 passengers to Genoa. Finally, there is also a significant presence in Genoa of Princess Cruises, which handled around 39,500 passengers with 11 calls.
Regarding ferries 175,022 passengers and 54,605 more cars were moved compared to 2022. Sardinia recorded an increase of almost 93,000 passengers, Corsica of around 60,000, North Africa of almost 29,000, while Sicily dropped by 12 thousand units. Commercial traffic closed essentially in line with the previous year (slight decline of approximately 53,000 linear metres).
The forecasts for 2024 are for ferry growth of 2-3%. While for cruise passengers the first estimates are slightly decreasing: 1.5 million cruise passengers with 305 stopovers.
MSC will drop to 1,150,000 passengers with 225 calls and Costa Crociere will rise to 275,000 passengers with 49 calls.