The numbers leave, as always, little room for interpretation. The port of Messina is one of the main references of the floating tourism industry and its shares are growing. 671,477. Here is how many cruise passengers arrived in Messina. The data are definitive for the whole of 2024 and confirm a consolidated trend. There were 27.6% more arrivals compared to 2023 which in turn was a record year with the historic exceeding of the threshold of half a million presences.
These are numbers, always the irrefutable ones, which definitively launch the port of the Strait into the Olympus of not only Italian but European cruise tourism. In a few weeks the sector data will be released with the usual ranking of the most “frequented” ports by cruise lovers. Messina starts from seventh place last year, in Italy, and from the historic first entry into the European top 20. The flattering figures achieved in 2024 should improve the positioning, it being understood that the entire sector is growing. And speaking of rankings, the port of the Strait is already at the top of the ranking for number of passengers in transit, thanks to the constant traffic between Sicily and Calabria.
