Following a significant 45% fall in the number of passengers embarking and disembarking in EU ports in 2020 (compared with 2019), 2021 was more positive, with data showing a partial recovery. Compared with 2020, the number of passengers increased by 16%, reaching 267.9 million passengers from 230 million in 2020. This is still considerably below the levels observed before the pandemic (-36% in 2021 compared with 2019) when EU ports registered 418 million passengers. (....)