There are SO many different cruise ports around the world but many people have their favourite.
This list shows which ports are the most popular based on passenger numbers per year. Is your favourite on here? Some of these surprised me – I expected Miami, Nassau etc to be on the list but didn’t necessarily expect New Orleans to be in the top 20 (although who could resist sailing up the Mississippi on a cruise ship??).
My favouorite ports are in Norway and they’ve not made it to the top 30 but they are beautiful and also seasonal so that is likely why.
| Rank | Port | Country | Number of passengers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Port of Miami |  |
4,850,000[1] |
| 2 | Port Everglades | |
4,160,000[2] |
| 3 | Port Canaveral | |
4,001,000[2] |
| 4 | Port of Nassau |  |
3,412,000 (2012)[3] |
| 5 | Port of Cozumel |  |
2,700,000[4] |
| 6 | Port of Barcelona |  |
2,364,292[5] |
| 7 | Port of Civitavecchia |  |
2,140,039[5] |
| 8 | Port of The Virgin Islands | |
2,083,890 [6] |
| 9 | Port of Saint Martin |   |
2,000,864 [7] |
| 10 | Port of Venice | |
1,733,839[5] |
| 11 | Port of The Balearic Islands | |
1,587,064[5] |
| 12 | Port of Southampton |  |
1,529,000 (2013)[8] |
| 13 | Port of Marseille | |
1,311,284[5] |
| 14 | Port of Naples | |
1,113,762[5] |
| 15 | Port of Piraeus |  |
1,055,556[5] |
| 16 | Port de Genoa | |
1,051,015 (2013)[9] |
| 17 | Port of Savona | |
1,018,794[5] |
| 18 | Port of New Orleans | |
1,014,325[10] |
| 19 | Port of Galveston | |
901,000 (2013)[11] |
| 20 | Port of Dubrovnik |  |
894,216[5] |
| 21 | Port of Tenerife | |
848,159 (2013)[9] |
| 22 | Port of Copenhagen |  |
840,000 (2013)[8] |
| 23 | Port of Seattle | |
823,780 [12] |
| 24 | Port of Vancouver |  |
812,398 (2013)[13] |
| 26 | Port of Rostock-Warnemünde |  |
766,000 (2016)[14] |
| 27 | Port of Corfu | |
744,651 (2013)[9] |
| 28 | Port of Kusadasi |  |
583,459 (2013)[9] |
| 29 | Port of Lisbon |  |
559,434 (2013)[9] |
| 30 | Port of Los Angeles | |
578,668[15] |
Port of Miami
The above are based on 2014 so I imagine we’ll see some changes when the new statistics are released as the Turkish ports have taken a huge hit due to terrorism and Malta has been used a lot more as a replacement.
And just for fun, the world busiest cargo ports are:
- Shanghai in China which has been the busiest container port since 2010
- Ningbo-Zhoushan in China which has been the world busiest port by cargo tonnage since 2010
- Singapore which is the busiest transshipment port
Rotterdam is the busiest cargo port in Europe, closely followed by Antwerp and Hamburg. Valencia is the busiest Mediterranean port.
Interesting stuff!
Let me know if you’re interested in cruise to any of these ports 🙂
Lx