Cruise industry: Greece benefits from tragic events in the Middle East

Temporarily, the Greek cruise market and in particular some Greek islands have benefited from the tragic events in Israel according to estimates from industry players. The Greek islands will benefit, estimates the President of the Union of Cruise Ship Owners and Shipping Agencies (EEKFN) Giorgos Koumbenas, while the honorary president of the Union, Theodoros Kontes, expresses the same assessment.

So according to Mr. Conte, the initial forecasts for 2023 for a total of 4800 approaches and 5.06 million passenger arrivals to be revised to 4940 arrivals and 5.24 million passenger arrivals, coming even closer to the record year 2019 with 5.55 million.

Question mark

But what will happen in 2024 remains a question mark as bookings for next year’s cruises are taking place at this time. As estimated, if the situation is not normalized soon, in 2024 the cruise throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Greece will be negatively affected as many companies will choose not to launch ships in the region as reported by the same factors.

Cruise connection between Burgas and Kavala

Mr. Giorgos Koumbenas, president of the Union of Cruise Ship Owners and Shipping Agencies, speaking to ot.gr noted that for this year and until the end of the season, the companies will cancel the itineraries to Israel and will add destinations to Greek islands and Turkey . However, for next year the development will be negative as many companies are expected to decide to de-route their ships from the Eastern Mediterranean since hardly anyone will now “buy” a cruise to Israel or even Egypt.

Cancellations and destinations

The cancellations of approaches favor the nearest Greek islands, but also Piraeus and partially Cyprus, Mr. Kontes points out.

The destinations, according to Mr. Conte, that will accept the additional approaches are the Dodecanese and the rest of the Aegean islands, with Rhodes mainly receiving the most applications. Also, Santorini, Mykonos and Heraklion as main destinations, but also Piraeus, which in some cases is used as a homeport replacing Haifa. Already, the companies Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, MSC, Oceania, TUI, Celestyal and others, have announced the change of the ports of Haifa and Ashdod with some of their cruise ships, in addition to the Greek islands, taking advantage of distances to the Turkish coast approaching Marmaris, Bodrum, etc.

This fact is temporarily positive for the current period and satisfies Greek destinations. However, everything will depend on the duration and extent of the unrest in the war-torn region as most companies are re-evaluating and re-scheduling future cruise destinations and perhaps overhauling their Eastern Mediterranean ports to include some Greek destinations for the year 2024, with the corresponding negative results as has happened in the past with the same region, he added.