Atout France analyzed cruise passenger numbers in 95 French ports of call. The results? During 2016, cruise destinations in mainland France and its overseas regions received 5.14 million stopover passenger arrivals -- up 16.2 percent from 2015.
What's the most visited French region? It's the Mediterranean at 2.58 million cruise visitors annually, followed by France's South Pacific islands at 1.49 million. The French Caribbean was third at nearly 509,000 cruise visitors.
Top port? Marseilles, which will welcome nine ships for maiden calls this year, takes that honor with the most stopover cruise visitors in France -- 1.10 million annually. It also is tops in France for home porting; see chart below.
Photo by Atout France
Second most visited home port was Guadeloupe's Pointe-a-Pitre, followed by Martinique's Fort de France, both in the Caribbean. Tahiti was fourth for home porting.
For the coming year, a new Pier H at Sete in southwestern France is capable of handling the largest ships.