Exhibitions Michalis Sakellis, President Association of Greek Passenger Shipping Companies by GTP editing team 18 November 2013 written by GTP editing team 18 November 2013 0 comments Share 0FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail 19 Philoxenia 2013 greeting. There is no doubt that incoming tourism this year was increased with positive results for the Greek economy. Nevertheless this increase had minor effects on coastal shipping as only a small percentage of travelers visited the islands by sea. Most of the tourists traveled straight to the islands with direct flights from abroad, one of the reasons being the high airport dues of Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos,” which have adversely influenced the traffic from Piraeus port to the islands. Overall, in the aftermath of summer we observe a slight increase of the Adriatic Sea passenger traffic, whilst on domestic lines, passenger volumes remained at 2012 levels. Taking into consideration the decline of domestic tourism due to lower income of Greeks, it is evident that it was actually the increase of foreign passengers, mainly traveling between the islands, which helped not to have negative numbers in domestic lines. Thus, the passenger companies have to face a long difficult winter as many problems are still outstanding and must be solved. Despite our warnings, no steps have been taken to safeguard the smooth services to our islands. It is disappointing that the Government does not have a holistic approach towards passenger shipping, which requires the strong commitment and interest of many competent Ministries and is not limited to the new Maritime Ministry. No solutions have been found on issues such as VAT reduction and bunkers price control, while at the same time banking facilities are not rendered efficiently. Taking all this into consideration we conclude that the Government has realized neither the significance of our coastal services to our tourism and our economy, nor its importance to the protection of our national interests. For this serious matter we ask for the intervention of the Prime Minister himself, to ensure that the necessary steps are taken in order to avoid catastrophic consequences in the case that our sea transport services are downgraded and not operating smoothly. Follow GTP Headlines on Google News to keep up to date with all the latest on tourism and travel in Greece. Share 0 FacebookTwitterLinkedinWhatsappEmail GTP editing team This is the team byline for GTP. The copyrights for these articles are owned by GTP. They may not be redistributed without the permission of the owner. previous post Dinos Frantzeskakis, President Hellenic Association of Airline Representatives next post Giorgos Telonis, President Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies You may also like GNTO: Austrian Bookings Surge for Ionian Islands in 2025 29 January 2025 US Market ‘Gets a Taste’ of Ionian Islands’ Culinary Offerings 29 January 2025 UN Tourism Celebrates 50 Years, Sets Ambitious Agenda for Future Growth 28 January 2025 MATKA 2025: Halkidiki Steps Up Efforts to Increase Arrivals from Finland 23 January 2025 Greece Sees 25% Increase in Bookings from Austrian Market for Summer 2025 22 January 2025 Attica Governor Promotes Yachting Tourism at boot Düsseldorf Fair 20 January 2025 Leave a Comment Cancel Reply Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ