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Cruise industry in the United Kingdom (UK) - statistics & facts

Cruise tourism is a popular form of leisure travel in the United Kingdom. In fact, the UK was the second largest source country for cruise passengers in Europe in 2021, after Germany. Looking at the passenger data for the leading European cruise markets shows how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted this travel segment. In 2021, the number of ocean cruise passengers from the UK and Ireland totaled roughly 479 thousand, denoting a 76 percent drop over pre-pandemic levels. In the same year, Northern Europe, the leading cruise destination for travelers from the UK and Ireland, recorded 59 percent of the visitors it welcomed prior to the pandemic. 

How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact the UK cruise industry?

As the travel restrictions enforced during the pandemic hit international travel harder than domestic tourism, the number of international cruise passenger arrivals and departures at ports in the UK decreased by 95 percent in 2020. Despite a slight growth in international cruise passengers in 2021, the industry had yet to recover from the impact of COVID-19. That year, Southampton, the busiest cruise port in the UK, reported around 150 thousand passenger movements, while the number of cruise passengers embarking and disembarking at that port surpassed 1.8 million in 2019. Overall, the drop in passenger volume caused a sharp fall in the cruise industry revenue in the UK, which is forecast to exceed pre-pandemic levels by 2025 at the earliest.  

Cruise passenger behavior in the UK

According to a 2021 study focusing on the age distribution of ocean cruise passengers from the UK and Ireland, this type of vacation was more popular among older travelers, as roughly seven in ten cruisegoers sourced from these countries were aged 50 years and older. Meanwhile, when considering the length of cruise trips, around a third of British and Irish travelers took cruises that lasted for a week in 2021. Overall, despite the popularity of this type of holiday in the country, they were not among the most common travel products booked in the UK, as just five percent of surveyed Britons claimed to have paid for a cruise trip in 2022. That being said, an August 2022 poll found that 35 percent of surveyed Britons who had never made a cruise trip were willing to do so in the future.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Sep 21, 2022

Key insights

Number of UK and Ireland cruise passengers
479k
Leading cruise destination for the UK and Ireland
Northern Europe
UK & Ireland cruise industry growth rate
84.5%
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Number of passengers on ocean cruises from the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland from 2010 to 2021 (in 1,000s)

Cruises

Number of passengers on ocean cruises from the UK and Ireland 2010-2021

Revenue of the cruise industry in the United Kingdom from 2017 to 2026 (in billion U.S. dollars)

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Cruise industry revenue in the United Kingdom 2017-2026

Leading cruise destinations ranked by passenger volume from the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland from 2019 to 2021 (in 1,000s)

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Leading cruise destinations of passengers from the UK and Ireland 2019-2021

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