Greece Looks to Further Develop Cruise, Yachting, Diving Tourism Markets

Santorini, Greece.

With Greece’s new Special Spatial Framework for Tourism aiming to address longstanding issues and upgrade tourist facilities, maritime tourism is a crucial component. Greece, situated as a peninsula in the southernmost part of the Balkans surrounded by water, is inherently tied to maritime activities.

The proposed framework emphasizes that “maritime spatial frameworks should accommodate facilities of maritime tourism, creating adequate numbers of spaces where they are allowed”.

It specifically includes provisions for cruise tourism, yachting tourism, and diving tourism.

Cruise tourism

– Provisions for the enhancement and modernization of existing facilities at home ports, prioritizing developed and developing areas, as well as urban areas with airports with international connections.

– Development of facilities for cruise ship passengers at ports of call, and ports having the capability or may have the capability to accommodate large cruise ships and are in areas of special tourist interest.

– Provisions for the separation of port facilities into a zones for cruise ships and zones for commercial/ passenger ships as well as the definition of uses of port infrastructure, at sea and on land, for cruise ships’ passengers. Also, provisions for the development of commercial and recreational activity areas, and spots for the promotion of local products, alongside cruise ship docks.

– Planning for the management of cruise ship destinations, which will include the wider vicinity of home ports as well as the management of cruise ship passengers, to not only protect passengers from overtourism phenomena but the destination locations as well. In areas victimized by overtourism the planning will also include quantitative limits for the docking of cruise ships at any given time.

Yachting tourism

For the further development of yachting tourism in Greece, the spatial framework contains provisions for the enhancement of docking sites, including marinas, anchoring areas and marine shelters, considering:

– The locations of existing marina planning and facilities with emphasis on development of the network in the areas of the Ionian Sea, the Eastern and Southeastern Aegean Sea, as well as in Gulfs, such as the Argosaronic, Argolikos and Pagasitikos.

– Assuring conditions of satisfactory services offered for provisions of tourist vessels, through the rational dispersion of marina facilities for the creation of a network of available services facilities at distances of 30 nautical miles of direct sailing between marinas and 15 nautical miles between marinas and marine shelters or anchoring sites. Further enhancement of such a network will depend on demand for services and infrastructure of tourist vessel docking as well as on the existence of local tourist resources of high popularity. The foresaid distances do not apply to urban areas and most popular tourism destinations, for which demand of docking spaces will be a critical factor.

– The demand of docking spaces as developing through time.

– The geomorphological and environmental characteristics, the wind and wave factors, the land uses and possible existing protection regulations of proposed spaces, to be considered in deciding about the category and the size of the tourist port – marina.

Diving tourism

Scuba diving tourist activities will be developed in scuba diving parks, manmade underwater sightseeing landmarks, modern times shipwrecks and underwater archeological sites declared as “open to the public”. The networking of scuba diving parks is encouraged.