Ports in Manhattan and Brooklyn are reaping the benefits of a global cruise boom, with a record-high year of passengers boarding skyscraper-length liners for getaways from the city.
Approximately 1.5 million passengers passed through the Manhattan and Brooklyn cruise terminals this year, according to city Economic Development Corp. data obtained by Crain’s. It was a busy year for vessels from top cruise brands including Carnival, Norwegian and Viking that made 238 stops at the Hell’s Kitchen and Red Hook terminals.
All that terminal activity, which under an EDC contract is overseen by Jersey-based operator Ports America through 2029, worked out to roughly $509 million in economic impact on the city this year, with the generation of nearly 3,000 full-time jobs, the EDC estimates.
New York’s swell of cruise travelers keeps up with record-growth throughout the industry. Cruise travel reached 107% of 2019 levels in 2023 — with 31.7 million passengers sailing worldwide — and 35.7 million people expected to embark on a cruise by the end of the year, according to data from global trade group the Cruise Lines International Association. By 2027, 40 million passengers will holiday on the high seas, the association projects.
The surge in cruise traffic has the industry optimistic heading into wave season — when cruise lines offer steep discounts throughout the first quarter to entice families to book trips. Many families plan out the year’s vacations during this time, and the cold weather in most northern areas tends to push travelers toward booking warm-weather getaways.
For the city, this year’s cruise ship traffic is a modest increase from the roughly 1.4 million travelers who boarded ships at the city’s cruise terminals in 2023 — even with a slight dip in the number of ships docking at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal year over year.
The ebb of ship traffic (down to 159 this year from 183 in 2023) was mostly due to a reshuffling of routes by the cruise lines, but especially high occupancy levels in 2024 still delivered 100,000 more passengers to the city’s terminals even with fewer ships coming and going, according to EDC spokesman Jeff Holmes.
It is little surprise that cruises are a top choice for families traveling with at least two generations. But while Baby Boomers were once the core consumer base for the industry, an increasing number of younger travelers and first-time passengers are getting on board.
Millennials and Gen X are primarily fueling the growth, largely to tropical destinations like the Caribbean and Bermuda. The average age of a cruise traveler is 46, but some 36% of passengers last year were under 40, the association’s data shows. In customer surveys, travelers often point to the ability to visit multiple destinations in one trip and the value for their money, as voyages often work out cheaper than land-based vacations, as to why they cruise.
But, even with the growth, the cruise industry makes up just 2% of the global travel and tourism sector. Researchers at J.P. Morgan forecast that the cruise industry will capture roughly 3.8% of the $1.9 trillion global vacation market by 2028.
In New York, the passenger traffic is a steady rise from pre-Covid-19 levels, where in 2018 nearly 1.3 million travelers boarded vessels at the city’s two main cruise terminals. The amount of ships traveling in and out of the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, in particular, has more than doubled from just 28 in 2018 to 79 in 2024.
The relatively sudden spike of vessels has come with some growing pains for surrounding communities. Earlier this year the City Council passed a bill that requires EDC to create and regularly update community traffic mitigation plans in the neighborhoods near the terminals that are dealing with an influx of car and foot traffic to their waterfront. Under the legislation, docked cruise ships must also connect to electric shore power, when available, to crack down on the planet-warming emissions the ships produce when idling their diesel engines.
