The first half of 2023 shows a dynamic return to pre-pandemic levels, the cruise in the port of Piraeus. At the same time, many of the companies in this sector now choose the first port in the country for home porting (restarting and completing the cruise from the same port). According to data from PPA SA, from the beginning of the year to June 2023 the pre-bookings of ships in the port of Piraeus were increased by 15% compared to the same period in 2022, with 272 ships having already sailed to the largest port of the country .

Also, 40% of them carried out home porting, i.e. the departure of the ship from the same port, which gives multiple economic benefits to the local communities.

According to recent research, the money that each passenger can spend at a port that uses the cruise ship as an arrival and departure quadruples.

It is noted that for 2023, a total of 765 cruise ships have planned to sail to the port of Piraeus, compared to 677 in 2022, while the number of passenger arrivals is expected to exceed 1 million.

At the six-month level, in 2023 passenger traffic showed an increase of 108.33% compared to 2022, as a total of 500,000 passengers were handled, of which 270,000 were those who started and ended their cruise in the same port (home porting). In 2022, during the same period, 240,000 passengers had traveled through Piraeus, of which 107,000 were from home porting. A total of 880,416 passengers with 677 berths of cruise ships were transported from the port of Piraeus in 2022. In 2019, a year when restrictions had not yet been imposed due to the pandemic, 622 cruise ships arrived at the port of Piraeus, with 1,098,091 passengers.

The president of the International Cruise Association CLIA, Pierfrancesco Vago, speaking recently at the Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum from Thessaloniki, underlined the important role of Greece in the cruise industry and the supporting role that our country had for the restart of ships in the Mediterranean region after the pandemic. He estimated that after three years of reduced operations, in 2023 the cruise industry will return to growth.

“This year we expect up to 33 million cruise passengers worldwide, exceeding the volume of 2019 by more than 11%”, he emphasized, underlining at the same time the increase of home porting activities in 2022 in Greece, as he said of the 87 CLIA cruise ships that were active in Greece 47 did homeporting – a 54% increase compared to 2021.

The implementation of the new pier project is expected

In the next period, unless unforeseen, progress is expected to be made to complete the new cruise pier at the port of Piraeus, a project subsidized by the EU, with a total budget of 136.2 million euros. The specific project located in the windward area of ​​the entrance of the port, southwest of Themistokleous pier, had started but was stopped after an appeal by the mayors of the area.

The Council of State has requested the Decision Issuing Environmental Terms, which must be accompanied by a traffic study. The traffic study by the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) has already been completed and was submitted as an annex to the Strategic Environmental Impact Study to the competent department of the Ministry of the Environment, which in September will also issue its decision on the environmental conditions, which will concern not only the project on the cruise, but also the rest of the projects.

The construction of the specific project will allow the docking of large cruise ships (over 300 meters), giving impetus to the efforts for additional development of tourism from the port of Piraeus.