Piraeus Port prepares for Midmay resumption of cruises

limani peiraia 7 krouazieroploia

Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) SA is gearing up for the official opening of the tourism season on May 14, hoping to revive a sector, which in the pre-pandemic 2019 season had seen it serve 622 calls and welcome over one million passengers before it suffered a 84% drop in cruise-related revenues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weng Lin, Deputy CEO of Piraeus Port Authority SA said: “The cruise sector plays a significant role for our revenues, as Piraeus port is an important hub for cruise ships in the Mediterranean Sea with 9-11 berthing slots for the simultaneous berthing of vessels of any size. The COVID19 outbreak in 2020 negatively affected all cruise industry stakeholders. In 2020, Piraeus port accommodated 76 cruise arrivals and most of them were technical calls for supplies and for crew repatriation purposes.”

At this stage, Piraeus port is in close cooperation with all the involved parties to follow all the required health protocols procedures based on the EU HEALTHY GATEWAYS. In response to the pandemic, PPA SA recently acquired a passenger disembarkation platform for emergency circumstances, which was constructed taking into consideration also the dimensions of the cruise ships which operate in the wider area and will be used in cases of inability to use the ship’s own means.

PPA is participating at this year’s Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum to catch up with the latest sector developments, interact and engage with customers, promote the port’s facilities, services and destination to a wider audience and to garner customer insights and feedback.

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