The cruise in Greece is in a state of optimism

Her Anastasia Vamvaka

George Koubenas, President of the Association of Cruise Shipowners and Shipping Operators, expressed optimism for the increase of cruise ship approaches in Greek ports and islands during the press conference of Celestyal Cruises.

“The number of announcements of approaches in Greek ports is particularly high with a large number of ships based in the ports of our country. Only from Piraeus will start cruises about 68 different cruise ships.

“What can not be predicted at the moment is the fullness of the ships in relation to the coronavirus, given that unfortunately now and with the tragic developments in Ukraine no one can make a safe prediction,” he said.

He added that the war in Ukraine increased operating costs due to rising fuel and supply costs by 30%.

Thessaloniki and Lavrio are being developed for homeporting

The cruise company Celestyal gives weight to the port of Thessaloniki for the development of home porting, with its cruises from Greece starting on Holy Monday, April 18th.

Mr. Leslie Peden, General Commercial Director of Celestyal Cruises, highlighted in his speech the strategic choices of the company, where in addition to the port of Piraeus, the ports of Lavrio and Thessaloniki were added as ports of departure (home port) of the company .

Specifically, regarding the strategic choice of Thessaloniki, he stated that “our company is the only one that will approach it steadily on a weekly basis and will board travelers, giving access to the cruise in all the Balkans and Northern Greece in line with the priorities of the Greek state for the decisive importance of the port in the tourist development of the country. ”

As it became known in yesterday’s press conference, the three-day, four-day and seven-day sea tours will start from the ports of Lavrio and Thessaloniki, while the two ships will approach Mykonos, Santorini, Agios Nikolaos, Crete and Kanta. Patmos.

The company’s total footprint in the national economy last year amounted to 26 million euros in two and a half months of operation of the ships, while one of the new quality data that emerged last year was the increase of Greek passengers who now represent one in four cruise ship passengers of Celestyal.

Anarchic ports

Mr. George Koumpenas, pointed out once again the poor coordination that prevails in the smaller islands during the disembarkation of visitors. “Unfortunately, there is an anarchic situation in some ports.

There are scheduled arrivals in Mykonos in the summer for seventeen cruise ships in one day “while in Patmos 6,000 tourists will” disembark from cruise ships almost at the same time “.

New cruise ships in the fleet

The company is looking to buy cruise ships. As Leslie Peden, chief commercial officer, pointed out, “we are evaluating some ships but until the evaluation is completed we can not say anything.

We want to improve the combination of cabins offered as customers increasingly demand suites and cabins with balconies. These are the criteria by which we look for cruise ships “.