Representatives of the cruise industry in the East Mediterranean highlighted some of the obstacles the sector faces, such as regional volatility and small available pool of cruise-ready ports. The Greek Minister of Tourism, Thanasis Theocharopoulos, noted, during the 5th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum in Athens that the challenges will not be surpassed if the cruise infrastructure won’t improve.
Specifically, the Minister addressed that the cruise passengers in Greece are expected to increase by 7%, thus the infrastructure should be enhanced in order for the sector to have the ability to handle the rise.
The Greek government is aware of the challenges and the needs of cruise companies and is working towards addressing the issues to alleviate stakeholder concerns.
The Minister of Tourism commented
Our aim is for our ports to become more attractive to cruise operators from an infrastructure point of view in order for Greece to fully capitalise on the vast potential of the cruise sector and increase its contribution to the country’s economic growth.
Yet, despite the barriers, Disney Cruise Line will return to Greece this summer with nine and 12-night itineraries connecting marquee Aegean ports with Venice and the Adriatic and MSC is adding a fifth ship in East Med increasing its available capacity by 26.4%. Another ship will be deployed by MSC in 2020 to fuel capacity by a further 25%.
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In the meantime, he continued that the increasing number of cruise passengers will pressure more the traditional and existent infrastructure, as the extra capacity cannot be dispersed to smaller, but equally attractive destinations which are still not cruise-ready.
As a consequence, Alexandros Fan, Product and Buying Corporate Shorex Excursions, MSC Cruises added
We need to have proper facilities and adequate infrastructure to serve and cater to our big ships.
Paul Britton, Manager, Marine Operations, Ports and Itinerary Planning, Disney Cruise Lines mentioned that it’s a pitty that Disney Cruise ships can only call to six Greek ports.
Concluding, Minister Theocharopoulos highlighted that the development of the cruise sector and making Greece a major sea tourism destination is amongst their most important priorities. The continuous promotion of Piraeus and Heraklion as home ports, the increase in the number of home ports across the country, the improvement of our infrastructure and facilities are some of the initiatives we have taken to upgrade our product and pave the way for investments.
