Port of Keelung welcomed 219 cruise ship calls and handled a record-breaking 993,000 international cruise passengers in 2025. All-time records were also set last year for foreign (non-Taiwanese) passengers, fly-cruise passengers, and cruise ship maiden visits handled at the port, making 2025 a truly banner year for northern Taiwan’s maritime gateway.
In terms of international cruise ship passenger numbers, the 993,000 welcomed in 2025 mark a hefty 26.2% increase from the 787,000 welcomed in 2024 and a nice 4.9% bump over the previous all-time high of 946,000 welcomed in 2019, just before the pandemic. Primary credit for the large increase last year goes to the return to Keelung of StarCruises, which made 79 cruise ship calls bringing a total of 312,000 passengers. Other key contributors include MSC Cruises, which deployed East Asia’s largest cruise liner to the port in 2025 and paid 30 calls at Keelung with a total of 229,000 passengers, and Costa Cruises, which paid 42 calls at Keelung with a total of 229,000 passengers. Together, these three cruise lines accounted for over 81.6% of cruise market activity at the port last year. Looking ahead, StarCruises and MSC Cruises have already announced plans to further raise their Keelung call numbers in 2026, fueling anticipation of a continuing upward growth trend in this market through the foreseeable future.
With regard to foreign passenger numbers, Port of Keelung processed a record-breaking 376,000 non-Taiwanese passengers in 2025. This eye-opening 41.3% increase over the also-record-breaking 266,000 processed just the previous year (2024) pushed overall passenger numbers to an all-time high as well. Primary credit for this goes to the rise in cruise ship port-of-call visits, which were up by 27 over the previous year and accounted for 88,000 additional passengers. Of note, the 7 charter cruises organized by Costa Cruises between Keelung and Korea in 2025 brought some 31,000 Korean passengers to enjoy the touristic allures of northern Taiwan. These voyages increased Korea’s share in overall cruise passenger arrivals from 2.9% in 2024 to 11.4% in 2025 (note: the top four cruise passenger nationalities in 2025 were - Japanese: 32.1%, American: 16%, Korean: 11.4%, and German: 6.5%). In addition, the 61,000 foreign tourists participating in Taiwan fly-cruise vacations in 2025 more than doubled the previous all-time record of 38,000 set in 2018. Norwegian Cruise Line’s 7 Keelung homeport voyages account for most of this number (44.4%), carrying 27,000 fly-cruise passengers, all of whom were foreign passport holders.
Taiwan’s cruise ship market continues to benefit from TIPC’s long-running strategic promotion and marketing efforts. In 2025, a record-breaking 19 cruise ships registered maiden visits to Port of Keelung. Even more noteworthy, four cruise lines that had never previously called in Taiwan made their historic first calls at Keelung in 2025. These included the adventure operator Scenic Cruises, luxury operator Mitsui Ocean Cruises, Korea’s Duwon Cruise & Ferry Co., Ltd., and residence cruise operator Villa Vie. Remarkably, Villa Vie Odyssey’s four-day tie-up at Keelung marked the longest multiday stay ever by a cruise ship in Taiwan - hinting at the significant untapped potential for longer-stay, in-depth tourism experiences targeting international passengers. After completing its maiden visit, Mitsui Ocean Fuji quickly announced Keelung homeport operations and opened new cruise departures from the port. Overall, 2025 saw Port of Keelung’s cruise market grow in terms of both volume and diversity, pointing toward continued healthy growth and stable operations through the coming years.
Beyond working to expand the number and variety of cruise ship visits, TIPC is steadily working to enhance the experience of passengers visiting and passing through Taiwan’s major ports. Plans are underway this year (2026) to subsidize the purchase and installation of four additional e-gates at the National Immigration Agency’s facility inside Keelung West Passenger Terminal. This will double the number of e-gates at the terminal to eight, facilitating the faster, more-efficient processing of in- and outbound passengers. Also, with cruise companies such as MSC Cruises and StarCruises now adding new Keelung homeport voyages during the once-slow winter cruise season, this year, Port of Keelung will be testing the feasibility of installing warm-water taps in West Passenger Terminal restrooms for user comfort during northern Taiwan’s regularly damp and chilly winter months.
Provided by：Stevedoring and Warehousing Dept., Port of Keelung, TIPC
Contact Person：Huai-hsuan Liu, Manager
Telephone No.：886-2-2420-6421
E-mail Address：sharon06@twport.com.tw
Image 1. Concurrent visits by Norwegian Sky (left) and Costa Serena (right) to Port of Keelung on January 26th, 2025
Image 2. Concurrent visits by Star Navigator (bottom left) and MSC Bellissima (upper right) to Port of Keelung on May 23rd, 2025
