The number of British passengers who took a cruise rose marginally from 1.69 million in 2012 to 1.72 million last year.
According to a report out today by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), UK passenger numbers increased by just 1.47%.
But the UK remains Europe’s biggest cruise market, with a 27.2% share of the total.
The UK’s direct spending on cruise, including items such as goods and services purchased by the cruise lines and the salaries of their employees, rose 6.5% to €3.12 billion pushing it from third to second in Europe replacing Germany.
The number of British and overseas passengers joining their cruise at a UK port passed the one million mark for the first time in 2013, jumping 8% to 1,062,000.
Meanwhile the number of passengers on day visits to one of the UK’s 51 cruise ports jumped by 20% to 866,000.
The total number of Europeans who took a cruise last year was 6.36 million, up 3.6% on 2012.
Although European passenger numbers continue to rise, they have slowed in the last few years since a peak of 12.6% growth between 2009 and 2010.
