The cruise industry is making a strong comeback in Greece and the first positive results are already available from its major port, which in the first half of the year has seen a significant increase in ship bookings and passenger traffic.
According to data available to “Naftemporiki”, the pre-bookings of ships in the port of Piraeus rose by 15% from the beginning of the year to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022, with 272 ships sailing to the largest port of the country.
Home porting played an important role corresponding to 40%, offering multiple economic benefits to the local communities.
A total of 765 cruise ships have planned to sail to the port of Piraeus in 2023, compared to 677 in 2022, while the number of passenger arrivals is expected to exceed 1 million.
Moreover, passenger traffic showed an increase of 108.33% in a six-month period compared to 2022, as a total of 500,000 passengers traveled, of which 270,000 were those who started and ended their cruise in the same port (home porting).
In the same period in 2022, 240,000 passengers traveled from the port of Piraeus.
In total, 880,416 passengers were transferred from the port of Piraeus in 2022.
In 2019, before the imposition of the restrictions due to the pandemic, 622 cruise ships arrived at the port of Piraeus, carrying 1,098,091 passengers.
