Greek Cruising Industry Present and Potential Planning

 

 

The Cruise Industry in Greek destinations began recovering at a smaller range compared to previous years in 2021 season. The year 2019 was the best year ever lately but also the year 2011 was the best year ever in Greek cruising.

Unfortunately, the year 2020 was a disaster for the entire industry due to COVID-19 pandemic with a great reduction in more than 90% of calls, as well as in more than 97% of guests calling area destinations. In a few words, the industry has almost withdrawn the operation not only in EastMed but globally.

More than 390 cruisers stayed in the ports for long lay-up periods or stayed idle with limited crew on board and /or they sailed along coastlines in various places because they were not allowed to approach several ports generally and also there were not available berths.

Greece was the country that handled the pandemic period very satisfactorily, as it accepted cruisers calling the main ports for operational reasons as well as for securing safety operational matters, recrewing issues, supplies, etc.

This has been accepted very well by the cruise lines and eventually, it was a great beneft for Greece to make a very successful restart in 2021 and progressively increase the trading in our region in the coming years, resulting in very successful years until 2023, which was another record year in passengers and calls after COVID period
well in advance than the numbers which were expected for 2025.

The total amount of passengers and calls made to all Greek destinations have been declared as follows:

- Season 2011: 5261 calls and 6,121,360 passengers in all Greek destinations made it the best year ever.

- Following years till 2018, there was a yearly increase of about 7% with a crisis reduction and vessels’ relocation to Asia resulting in a considerable reduction for 2017.

- The latest record year, with 5,552,384 passengers and 3979 calls, was the 2019 season.

- The cruising season 2020 was a disaster with only 210 calls and passengers 67,528.

- In year 2021 we had the restart of cruising with 1957 total calls and 1,316,662 passengers.

- In year 2022, a progressive increase was noticed with total 4780 calls and 4,629,650 passengers.

- In year 2023, there was a record year with total 5230 calls and 7,003,150 passengers.

Apart from the huge progress in the numbers of calls and passengers, there has been great progress in homeporting, mainly in the port of Piraeus, creating a difference in the financial results of the cruising industry in our area. Piraeus still remains the main Harbor with 1.5million passengers for 2023, followed by Santorini with 1.3million passengers and Mykonos with 1.2million. Corfu, Rhodes, Katakolon and Heraklion follow.

What we expect for 2024 season seems to be on a very similar level with the results of 2023, although the East Med area with Israel and other destinations seem to have some problems with Israel/Hamas war still in progress.

In reference to the various nationalities and markets, the North Americans (USA) are the ones who prefer Greek destinations and are the main sea tourists in our region.Canadians and South Americans follow and also Europeans, British, French, Spanish and German – Austrian markets are quite interesting in cruising as well as the Italians in short er summer season.

Last are the Asian markets at lower rates. Chinese, Koreans, and other Asian countries in general. Turkish market is also a possibility but due to their currency devaluation, as well as visa requirement and extra costs, at the present time of crisis cruising is too expensive and may affect seriously the numbers in comparison to previous years.

Below you can see the Greek port destinations for 2023 season. We expect them to be maintained for season 2024, at least to remain at the same level.

Greece has great power in cruising in East Med programmes and is expected to further improve in the coming years provided that the entire EastMed area remains peaceful. Homeporting is also improved considerably with Piraeus remaining the main port for East Med embarkation. Almost on the same level as Barcelona in Spain, which is the main embarkation port for the Western Med. Our main competitor in East Med is Turkey with Istanbul to be the main homeporting and Kusadasi, Cesme,
Izmir, Antalya and Bodrum to be the coastal Med destinations. Following is the progress of the Greek cruising industry as well as the expect ed potential in the coming years:

Reviewing all yearly seasonal numbers from the start-up of 2021 season, we can notice that the progressive in creases in passengers for years 2022-2023 on cruisers are a fact that the occupancy of cruise vessels noticed to increase and have considerably made an average occupancy of up to 93% for year 2023.

On the other side, we have also noticed that there is an increase in calls in most destinations to such a higher number in comparison to the previous years, but it is clearly noticed that there is an increase in small and medium sized cruisers including expedition cruisers with a capacity of 200 to 800 guests, resulting a lower average
numbers of guests per destination, per vessel in comparison to the previous years with a big number of mega cruisers.

This is a great advantage for most of the Greek destinations including small islands with limited facilities and of course it should be considered that the limitation on the capacity should apply in all destinations in order to maintain the good service ashore, as well as the local people and land tourists’ services at the same time to re
main in good status. This is a very important task to apply per destination and it must be agreed and considered by the main government and local authorities, facilities, unions and it depends on the infrastructure as well as the service personnel and of course the local visiting historical places, museums and in general the important sightseeing places.

The size of cruise vessels under con struction is also noticed. The number of small and medium sized vessels has increased in all yards and most inter national destinations, and this was no ticed after the COVID pandemic lately. Also, more new luxury cruising brands are in place operating these mid/ small/luxury cruisers and even the existing big cruise lines with mega cruisers are making new brands for such operation, (i.e MSC etc). The mega cruisers of course will remain cruising and mainly will operate worldwide for mass markets mainly trading in big sized destinations with great facilities, as well as worldwide long cruising with great facilities onboard.

Greek destinations still remain being the long outstanding global berth allocation system, which is still pendingin order to give priorities in all destinations and keep control of each destination occupancy.

By Theodore Kontes,
Honorary President Of Cruise Shipowners Association EEKFN,
Director of Majestic International Cruises Inc