Nearly 28 million people travelled by ferry in the first eight months of this year – an increase of 2.6% on 2013.
Almost 15 million of those travelled in the summer months of June, July and August, according to Discover Ferries.
Of these summer ferry passengers, over 7 million chose continental ferry routes, nearly 5.9 million visited UK domestic destinations by ferry such as Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Scottish Islands, and nearly 2 million took a ferry to Ireland.
The fastest growing ferry sector over the last three summer months to end August has been continental destinations, up 4.2% to 7.06m passengers, with 2.92m of these carried on continental ferry routes in August alone, up 5.7% on August 2013.
Over 6 million cars and almost 120,000 coaches were carried during the eight-month period.
