Fewer Ferry Routes and Higher Fares Affect Tourism

Fare increases in conjunction with route cuts had a negative impact on traffic to the Aegean and Ionian islands.

According to data from the Ministry of Mercantile Marine, the Aegean and Island Policy, the decrease in passenger traffic from the Piraeus port to the Aegean islands and Crete reached 4.69 percent, compared with the corresponding period last year, despite the small increase in routes from Piraeus compared with last year. This concludes that in regards to Piraeus (the main port of departure) the fall in passenger traffic is due to fare increases, which have risen for certain destinations at a rate of up to 15 percent since April 2008.

On the other hand, in regards to the ports of Rafina, Lavrio and the Argosaronikos line, the passenger traffic reduction can be attributed partly to a corresponding reduction in routes.

However, overall passenger movement (departures and arrivals) from the three ports in Attica is considered high as from 1 June to 11 August a total of 14,893 ferry trips transported a total of 4,479,452 passengers.

For the same period in 2007, 15,834 trips were carried out with a total of 4,644,710 passengers.

This leads to a 3.5 percent decrease in total passenger traffic and a drop of 5.94 percent in the total number of routes.