Cruise industry: More than 700 cruise ships will dock at Greek ports this year

More than 700 cruise ships will approach our country’s ports this year, of which 570 will do home porting with obvious benefits for local economies, since Home porting means four times the revenue in each region.

The above was highlighted a while ago at an event in the port of Lavrio organized by Celestyal Cruises on the occasion of the start of this year ‘s cruise program of the company from that port.

Celestyal Cruises will make from Lavrio three and four day cruises to the Greek islands and Turkey with home port, with the cruise ship Celestyal Olympia starting tomorrow its first voyage with very satisfactory fullness as it will accommodate 1200 passengers with a total capacity of 1.8 transport passengers.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Shipping Giannis Plakiotakis stressed that 2022 will be a very good year for the cruise industry which is preparing for a good start.

The Minister also gave news announcing the creation of an electronic berth allocation platform to facilitate the access of cruise ships to the various ports of the country. Referring to the port of Lavrio, he stressed that the construction of five floating piers is in the final stage.

Undersecretary of Tourism Sofia Zacharaki stressed that the government wants to bring the country one step further in maritime tourism where last year according to the BoG data recorded a revenue increase of 1900% in 2021 compared to 2020.

Ms. Zacharaki underlined the opportunity that opens for the city of Lavrio as a tourist destination by the 70,000 tourists who will arrive in Lavrio to start a cruise with Celestyal from there.

The business director of Celestyal Cruises, Mr. George Koumpenas, stressed that Celestyal is unfortunately the only cruise company based in Greece.

In 2021 it hosted 120,000 tourists from 140 countries with its total footprint on the Greek cruise approaching 133 million euros. For 2022, he added that 62 cruises will have a starting port in Lavrio. The benefits for the city of Lavrio will be significant as research has shown that the cruise tourist leaves 400 euros per passenger based on the port while one in three passengers return for vacation.

The Secretary General of the Ministry of Shipping, Mr. Vangelis Kyriazopoulos, underlined that Lavrio has a character that should keep and highlight the industrial character together with the tourist one and not become Disneyland.

Finally, the Mayor of Lavrio, Dimitris Loukas, expressed his satisfaction for the fact that Celestyal Cruises chose Lavrio for home porting, while as stated to ot.gr, the Municipality will launch VIP buses so that tourists can visit various sights of the city before departure. .