Greek Shipping Ministry Focuses on Berth Allocation Systems for Cruise Liners

The need to update the General Port Regulation as well as ways to improve the mooring of cruise ships at Greek ports was the focus of a workshop held this week at the Shipping Ministry.

Organized by the General Secretariat of Ports, Port Policy and Maritime Investments, the event, under the coordination of Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis, covered issues of berth allocation.

The minister noted that authorities were in the process of recording all Greek ports and their specifications in efforts to strengthen and facilitate the cruise sector. He reiterated the ministry’s call to companies interested in making use of Greek ports to submit their plans.

Port of Piraeus

Two electronic mooring systems were also presented by the port authorities of Corfu and Piraeus in efforts to deal with increasing incoming cruise ship traffic.

Workshop conclusions centered on the need to establish a nationwide berth allocation system in order to allow cruise companies to have real-time information and data for short- and long-term planning. Experts did however underline that due to the uniqueness of the country’s ports, each authority will have to research and set up a local mooring system.