EDITORIAL | Passenger vessel death toll falls 28 per cent in 2025; tour boats become an increasing problem

Africa clearly is the main ferry safety problem region, but further afield, mainly in Southeast Asia and South America, there is a worryingly increasing trend in tourist boat fatalities. That is probably a result of rapidly increasing tourism in such places and, perhaps also, thanks to the internet in increased reporting of such incidents.

However, while they each usually result in small numbers of fatalities, largely because the boats involved are usually small, they represented 34 per cent of the accidents recorded in the BMPVA database in 2025. All the usual causes apply but they are worsened by a worrying negligent “cowboy” attitude that seems too common among the operators of such boats. That requires urgent government attention in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Peru, and Vietnam.

Cruise ships, fortunately, proved to be very safe

Finally, some good news. Only three fatalities were recorded on the BMPVA database as having occurred on cruise ships during 2025. One was a murder and the other was an apparent suicide, so it is hardly the fault of the ship owners or their crews. The other, sadly, was the loss of a passenger on a shore excursion. That may have resulted from crew negligence.

Overall, 2025 showed starkly that, despite improvements in the developed and developing world, much remains to be done to improve passenger vessel safety, particularly in poor countries. Improvements, however, can be achieved, quite rapidly, if governments develop the will to introduce sensible safety regulations and enforce them rigorously.