Adriatic Sea, 2014 sees cruise business collapse

Venice - In 2013, over 5.2 million cruise passengers travelled on the Adriatic Sea (4.6% more than in 2012). There is an estimated contraction of -13% in 2014. Furthermore, there were around 17 million passengers on ferries (-0.9% in comparison to 2012) and this business is expected to grow 2.1% in 2014; on top of that, there are 300 touristic marinas for a total of almost 77,000 moorings. In summary, these are the figures announced in the Adriatic Sea Tourism Report 2014. This report is made by Risposte Turismo – a research and consulting company specialized in the tourism macroindustry – that analyses the flows, dimensions, direction and behaviour of tourists’ movements by sea on the Adriatic (cruises, ferries and boats) that impact the seven countries on its shores. In particular, according to the analysis of the cruise traffic reported by the more than 20 active ports on the Adriatic Sea, in 2013 Venice ranked first with more than 1.8 million passengers (34.8% of the total) and 548 port calls (17.2% of the total) followed by Dubrovnik with a little more than 1 million passengers (20.8% of the total) and 692 port calls (21.7% of the total) and Corfu, with around 744,000 passengers and 480 port calls, equivalent respectively to 14.3% and 15% of the total recorded traffic. In regards to ferry traffic, the study analyses the passenger movements and port calls in over 40 ports on the Adriatic Sea. In 2013, the passengers who moved through these ports’ infrastructures were around 17 million, a small contraction (-0.9%) compared to 2012 on the recorded ports. A similar contraction was noted in the report for stopovers at these ports, these reached 81,000 in 2013.