CLIA Addresses Sustainable Cruise Tourism on Mykonos

Photo source: NCL

The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) recently confirmed its strong commitment to collaborate with popular cruise destinations regarding the industry’s priorities of sustainable growth and responsible tourism during a visit to Mykonos.

Representing CLIA, Maria Deligianni, Regional Director, Eastern Mediterranean, and Nikos Mertzanidis, Vice-President, Ports & Destinations, visited the popular Aegean Island and met with local authorities.

Deligianni and Mertzanidis acknowledged that Mykonos is a cruise destination of global importance, which has gained even greater popularity in recent years, and focused on the joint actions that are necessary in order to maximise the benefits for the island from cruising and promote sustainable growth.

In this direction, CLIA supported the local efforts to introduce a berth management system on Mykonos, for better distribution of cruise ship arrivals on a daily and weekly basis, according to the capacity of the port and the destination and aiming at an optimal passenger experience. The development of the right port infrastructure, operating environment and sustainable growth is among the five pillars of CLIA’s action plan for Greece.

(from second from left) Nikos Mertzanidis, Vice-President, Ports & Destinations, CLIA; Athanasios Kousathanas-Megas, President, Municipal Port Authority of Mykonos; Maria Deligianni, Regional Director, Eastern Mediterranean, CLIA; and Christos Veronis, Mayor of Mykonos. Photo source: CLIA

While on Mykonos, CLIA’s representatives met with Mykonos Mayor Christos Veronis, Mykonos Municipal Port Authority President Athanasios Kousathanas–Megas and the Head of Technical Dept, Head of Cruise & Deputy Port Facility Security Officer, Nikolaos Vardalachos.

Veronis and Megas agreed that cruises are a “very important tourism activity” for the island and that Mykonos “seeks to serve all cruise ships in an optimal way”.

According to CLIA’s Maria Deligianni, the cruise industry is proud to cooperate with the Mykonos authorities for the sustainable growth of the cruise sector.

“Key to this is cooperation careful management to ensure smooth operations at port and destination level, and to protect the guest experience with great respect to the local community,” she said.

The economic impact of cruises to the global and Greek economy was also discussed during the meeting, with CLIA announcing that it is conducting a study on the economic impact of cruise tourism and an assessment of the cruise activity on Mykonos, in collaboration with the Oxford Economics research center and the Port of Mykonos.

According to CLIA, the study will be completed by the end of 2024 and is expected to confirm the significant local economic impact of cruise tourism locally, which nationally supported more than 14,300 jobs and contributed a total of 1.4 billion euros to the Greek economy in 2022.

“Our new study on the local economic impact of cruise tourism, with first-hand information from passengers, crew, businesses and tour operators is vital in understanding the scale of economic impact,” Deligianni said.

In the same direction, CLIA informed the local authorities about the steps the industry is taking in the green transition, including development of onshore power solutions, alternative fuels, and several technologies onboard to improve energy efficiency and reuse, recycle and minimize waste.