Port of Dover unveils buoyant 2023 results

The Port of Dover, the UK busiest international ferry port, has published its Annual Report & Accounts 2023 signifying a strong return towards pre-pandemic numbers across the business. Since the midst of the pandemic in 2021, this represents an increase in tourist vehicles for the two-year period to 2023 from 0.3 million up to 1.6 million and passenger numbers up from 3.1 million to 8.8 million respectively.

Freight volumes grew by 8 per cent in 2023 to 2.2 million vehicles, defying wider UK and EU economic conditions. This number of lorries, lined up back-to-back, would have circled the globe.The ongoing role of the port as a vital gateway to Europe for people and goods and the need to make major adaptations to critical national infrastructure for a post-Brexit digital and decarbonised future, demonstrate how the port needs to generate significant funds in the near term to support these investments.

Jason Holt, Chair of the Port of Dover, said, “At the start of 2023, we set the Port of Dover’s vision to be the UK’s most seamless, sustainable, and technology-enabled port.