Cruise Industry Statistics in Canada by Port

Updated 2026-11-10

Cruise Industry Statistics in Canada by Port

Cruise tourism in Canada is concentrated in a handful of ports on two coasts. Vancouver and Victoria handle the large Alaska trade on the Pacific side, while Halifax, Saint John, Quebec City, Sydney and Montreal serve the Atlantic and St. Lawrence side. Federal and port sources count passengers in different ways, so the numbers for a single port can differ widely depending on the publisher.

This page collects the main published figures for 2015 to 2025, explains how the series are built, and describes the 2020 to 2022 suspension, the effect of United States cabotage law on Alaska itineraries, and the Canadian rules on security, discharges and shore power.

Where the numbers come from

Three kinds of sources are in common use.

Statistics Canada publishes cruise arrivals taken from the Frontier Counts program. These counts are recorded at the traveller's first port of call in Canada. The data sit in table 24-10-0053-01, International travellers entering or returning to Canada, by type of transportation and traveller type, and appear in the occasional infographic series with catalogue number 11-627-M.

Transport Canada publishes Table M16, Cruise Ship Traffic at Selected Canadian Ports, in its annual transportation addendum. The table is expressed in thousands of passengers and covers seven ports. Its sources are the Canada Port Authorities, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority and the Port of Sydney. The 2024 column is marked preliminary.

Because the Statistics Canada series assigns each traveller to the first Canadian port of call, a passenger who visits Victoria and then Vancouver appears at only one of them. The difference in method is visible in the 2024 and 2025 figures below.

National totals from 2019 to 2025

Statistics Canada reports the following cruise passenger arrivals.

The 2025 total was about 1.5 percent below 2024 and roughly 31 percent above the last full pre-pandemic year.

By residence, United States travellers made up 80.0 percent of 2025 arrivals, or 1,525,661 people. Overseas residents accounted for 11.9 percent (227,804) and Canadian residents for 8.1 percent (154,828).

Arctic ports (Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, Pond Inlet and Iqaluit) received 5,591 cruise passengers in 2025, 27.0 percent more than in 2019.

Passenger counts by port, 2015 to 2024

Transport Canada's Table M16 gives the following figures, in thousands of passengers. The 2020 and 2021 columns were zero at every port and are left out of the table for space.

The total rose from 1,993.0 thousand in 2015 to 2,777.1 thousand in 2019, then recovered to 3,238.0 thousand in the preliminary 2024 figure, about 17 percent above 2019. The recovery was uneven. Vancouver (1,327.3 against 1,070.9), Victoria (970.0 against 709.0), Halifax (359.6 against 323.7) and Sydney (213.3 against 150.7) all ended 2024 above their 2019 levels. Saint John (163.3 against 196.0), Quebec City (154.3 against 236.7) and Montreal (50.2 against 90.1) remained below them.

Port-by-port notes

Vancouver

Canada Place is the main cruise terminal for the region, and Alaska cruises depart from it. The building opened on May 2, 1986, was expanded in 2001 for another cruise berth, and is owned by the port authority. Vancouver is the main home port in Canada, where Alaska voyages begin and end. The port recorded 810,090 cruise passengers on 307 sailings in 2022. The Transport Canada series puts 2024 at 1,327.3 thousand, the largest of any Canadian port.

Statistics Canada counts 533,311 arrivals at Vancouver in 2025 as first port of call, second to Victoria.

Victoria

Victoria's Ogden Point terminal has four berths, though no more than three ships can be in port at once. The first weekly cruise call, by Norwegian Sky from Seattle, arrived in 2001. In 2008 the terminal handled 202 cruise ships and more than 380,000 passengers. In 2009 it received 228 ships and over 400,000 visitors between April 23 and October 14. Most calls are single-day or evening visits on Alaska itineraries, and no ships are home-ported there.

In the Statistics Canada series Victoria is the top port of arrival in 2025 with 959,114 passengers, ahead of Vancouver. US residents made up 844,900 of them and overseas residents 82,600. Statistics Canada reports that British Columbia ports together took 81.1 percent of all arrivals, about 1.5 million.

Halifax and Dartmouth

Halifax passengers grew from 222.3 thousand in 2015 to 323.7 thousand in 2019, dipped to 239.5 thousand in 2022 and reached 359.6 thousand in the preliminary 2024 figure. Statistics Canada counted 149,926 arrivals at Halifax and Dartmouth in 2025, with 121,400 US residents and 20,600 overseas residents.

Saint John

Saint John reached 196.0 thousand passengers in 2019 and 172.2 thousand in 2023, before easing to 163.3 thousand in 2024. Statistics Canada puts first-port arrivals at 135,261 for 2025. Statistics Canada puts the East Coast share of national arrivals at 18.2 percent.

Quebec City and Montreal

The Port of Quebec recorded passenger traffic of 230,940 in 2018, according to its annual report, and a description of the port notes that cruise traffic has replaced much of its former freight business. Transport Canada shows Quebec City at 236.7 thousand in 2019 and 154.3 thousand in 2024. Montreal handled 90.1 thousand in 2019 and 50.2 thousand in 2024.

Sydney

Sydney, Nova Scotia, grew from 89.7 thousand passengers in 2015 to 213.3 thousand in 2024. Statistics Canada reports that since 2024 the leading ports where overseas travellers enter Canada directly have been Sydney, Halifax and Dartmouth, and St. John's. Direct overseas entries made up 11.1 percent of overseas arrivals in 2025, up from 3.7 percent in 2023.

Seasons

The Canadian season is short and peaked. Statistics Canada's monthly figures for 2025 show almost no activity from December to February and a rapid build-up from spring:

January, February and December each recorded about a hundred passengers. August was the busiest month, and September was close behind.

On the Pacific coast, the main season is the Alaska trade. The Alaska itineraries use Vancouver as a home port and Victoria as an in-transit call, which explains why British Columbia accounts for more than four in five arrivals. The Victoria schedule for 2009 ran from April 23 to October 14. Autumn still carries large volumes nationally: September 2025 arrivals were over 373 thousand and October arrivals about 146 thousand.

The 2020 to 2022 suspension

Transport Canada has used interim orders under the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 since March 2020 to limit the spread of COVID-19 on cruise ships and ferries. The orders barred cruise ships with overnight accommodation and certified capacity above 100 people from operating in Canadian waters. Passenger vessels certified for more than 12 passengers were kept out of Arctic coastal waters.

On February 4, 2021 the government announced a ban on cruise ships that was set to run until February 28, 2022. On July 15, 2021 the Minister of Transport moved the end of the ban forward to November 1, 2021, on condition that operators could fully comply with public health requirements, and the government said a 2022 season was expected. At that time, the government described the cruise industry as contributing more than $4 billion a year to the Canadian economy and supporting about 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. Most of the ships affected by the restrictions were foreign-flagged.

Statistics Canada counted 715 cruise passengers in 2020 and 1,337 in 2021, against 1,452,447 in 2019. The Transport Canada port table shows zero passengers at all seven ports in both years. The 2022 national total of 1,223,083 was 15.8 percent below 2019, and 2023 exceeded 2019 by 25.7 percent.

The Passenger Vessel Services Act and Alaska

The Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, codified at 46 U.S.C. 55103, bars foreign vessels from carrying passengers between two United States ports, directly or by way of a foreign port. Foreign-flagged ships can still sail from and return to the same US port if they visit a foreign port, and can run between two US ports if they call at a distant foreign port.

For foreign-flagged ships, cruises to Alaska were effectively required to start or stop in a foreign port, which in practice meant British Columbia. This requirement underlies the role of Vancouver as a home port for Alaska voyages and of Victoria as a port of call.

When Canada closed its waters to cruise ships, the foreign-port stop became impossible, which blocked foreign-flagged ships from reaching Alaska under the Act. In May 2021, the Alaska Tourism Recovery Act was signed, temporarily waiving the foreign port requirement for certain named cruise ships so that they could sail directly from Seattle to Alaska. Transport Canada's briefing gives the signing date as May 24, 2021, and says the exemption ends at the earlier of Canada lifting its ban or March 31, 2022.

Regulation of cruise ships in Canada

Security

The Marine Transportation Security Regulations (SOR/2004-144) define a cruise ship as a vessel with sleeping facilities for over 100 persons who are not crew members, excluding ferries, and a cruise ship terminal as a marine facility that interfaces with cruise ships. In the 2006 version of the text, a declaration of security must be completed before an interface begins if it involves a cruise ship. Screening of persons and goods follows the security level: a frequency set in the plan at level 1, a higher frequency at level 2 and all persons and goods at level 3. That version also lists additional cruise requirements on weapons, access control and security briefs, and for cruise ship terminals.

Sewage and greywater

Transport Canada's Ship Safety Bulletin 10/2026, dated June 7, 2026, describes cruise ship discharge requirements under Interim Order No. 4, which came into force on June 11, 2026 and has the effect of a regulation while permanent regulations are developed. The measures cover cruise ships certified for more than 100 people with overnight accommodation, whether Canadian or foreign, and run from June 2026 to June 2027.

The order prohibits discharging greywater and sewage within 3 nautical miles of shore, an ice shelf or fast ice anywhere in Canada. From 3 to 12 nautical miles, sewage may be discharged only if treated by an approved marine sanitation device, to a fecal coliform count of 14 per 100 millilitres or less and with no visible solids, sheen or discoloration.

Narrow exceptions exist, among them transit through waters less than 6 nautical miles across, insufficient holding tank capacity and releases needed to save lives or secure the ship. Penalties can reach $250,000 in administrative penalties, or on summary conviction a fine of up to $1,000,000, imprisonment of up to 18 months, or both a fine and imprisonment.

Shore power

Shore power lets a ship plug into the electrical grid at berth and shut down its engines. The shore power facility at Canada Place was unveiled by Port Metro Vancouver on August 31, 2009, as the first cruise ship installation in Canada and the third in the world. The project cost about $9 million. The federal and British Columbia governments each contributed up to $3 million, and industry paid the rest. Four Princess ships and one Holland America ship used it in the 2009 Alaska season, and the project was estimated to reduce carbon dioxide by 3,200 to 3,700 tonnes in its first full year.

Frequently asked questions

Which Canadian port receives the most cruise passengers?

By Transport Canada's port-reported counts, Vancouver led in 2024 with 1,327.3 thousand passengers, followed by Victoria with 970.0 thousand. By Statistics Canada's first-port-of-call counts, Victoria led in 2025 with 959,114 arrivals and Vancouver followed with 533,311.

How many cruise passengers visited Canada in 2025?

Statistics Canada counted 1,908,293 cruise passengers in 2025, about 1.5 percent below the 2024 total of 1,938,095 and about 31.4 percent above 2019.

Why do the port totals differ from the national total?

The Statistics Canada series records each passenger once, at the first port of call in Canada. The Transport Canada port table is built from port authority reports on seven ports and totals 3,238.0 thousand for 2024 on a preliminary basis. The two are different measures and do not reconcile directly.

When were cruise ships banned from Canadian waters?

Transport Canada used interim orders from March 2020. A ban announced on February 4, 2021 was due to last until February 28, 2022, and in July 2021 its end was brought forward to November 1, 2021. Ports recorded no cruise passengers in 2020 and 2021 in the Transport Canada table.

What is the connection between the Passenger Vessel Services Act and Vancouver?

The Act restricts foreign-flagged ships from carrying passengers between two US ports without a foreign port call. Alaska voyages from Seattle or from Vancouver therefore involve a Canadian stop or start, and the ports of British Columbia carry most of the traffic. The 2021 Alaska Tourism Recovery Act waived the requirement temporarily for named ships and expired in March 2022.

What are the sewage discharge limits for cruise ships in Canada?

Interim Order No. 4 prohibits sewage and greywater discharge within 3 nautical miles of shore, ice shelf or fast ice. Between 3 and 12 nautical miles, sewage must be treated by an approved device, to 14 fecal coliforms per 100 millilitres or less.

Is there shore power for cruise ships in Canada?

Canada Place in Vancouver opened Canada's first cruise ship shore power facility in August 2009.