2015 Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum Announced

The third Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum will be held May 2015 in Athens, the event’s organizers confirmed recently.

“We are excited with the success of this addition to our event portfolio,” said the project director at Posidonia Exhibitions S.A., Theodore Vokos, who is also the organizer of the trade shipping event Posidonia Shipping Exhibition.

According to the organizers, the biennial event has managed to quickly establish itself as a leading business platform for global cruising and yachting industry decision makers and governments, tourism bodies, regulators, ports and destinations from the entire Mediterranean and Black Sea region.

2nd Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum

Over 650 delegates and 32 exhibitors from 25 countries attended this year’s 2nd Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum which was held over a two-day period at the Athens Megaron last month and organizers believe that this is just the beginning. For 2015 the bar has been set even higher.

Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni

Andreas Andreadis, president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises. Photo © GTP

Yiorgos Telonis, president of the Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourist Agencies (HATTA)

Helen Beck, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises

Dario Rustico, Costa Crociere

Kerry Anastassiadis, Louis Cruises

All participants from both cruise and yachting sectors agreed that Greece has significant competitive advantages with regard to sea tourism, but needs to do more to overcome certain ill conceived policies and regulatory anachronisms that impede development. (For details, press here and here.)

Senior speakers at the Posidonia Forum said that Greece has the potential of greatly increasing its current share of a European sea tourism pie that amounts to a combined output of over 40 billion euros annually.

Although Greece’s recent efforts to improve transparency and simplify bureaucratic procedures are commendable, effective change can only happen through longer-term strategies and better coordination.

“We are committed to making our next event even more thought-provoking and we are asking all stakeholders to look into the issues raised at the Forum and introduce strategies and measures to help our region reap more benefits from this lucrative sector,” he concluded.

Significant partnerships were forged during the two days as delegates and exhibitors engaged industry executives and participated at a series of workshops and targeted meetings with the goal of finding mutual synergies.

The 2nd Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum was held under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Tourism and the Greek Ministry of Shipping.

Greek Shipping Minister Konstantinos Moussouroulis during his tour of the event’s exhibition.

Ukko Metsola, senior adviser at Fipra International and Andreas Stylianopoulos, CEO Navigator Travel & Tourist Services. Fipra is a global network of senior and strategic advisers specializing in public policy and regulatory issues.

Heraklion Port Authority President and CEO Yiannis Bras with Piraeus Port AUthority General Manager Stavros Hatzakos.