Sea Tourism

Greece’s first waterway will be constructed at the port of the Ionian island of Corfu, according to a decision signed on Saturday by Merchant Marine Minister Miltiades Varvitsiotis and Deputy Infrastructure and Transport Minister Michalis Papadopoulos.

The developmental prospects of the cruise sector in Greece will be tabled at a meeting on Monday 22 December between Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni and Merchant Marine Minister Miltiades Varvitsiotis.

The Corfu Port Authority (CPA) has announced that it plans to relaunch the Corfu-Italy coastal shipping route in the summer of 2015 with the Corfu-Brindisi route.

After 12 years, Greek cruise is once again in the international spotlight. On Friday, 28 November, the Louis Cristal set sail from the port of Piraeus for its first transatlantic cruise.

Environment minister Ioannis Maniatis recently approved the terms that will pave the way for the construction of the first waterway in Greece on the Ionian island of Corfu.

The need to draw up and implement an innovative strategy for the sustainable development of Greece’s maritime sector was the focus of the ESPON conference held this month in Piraeus.

Competitiveness, fair fiscal policy and attracting foreign investment were the key points Shipping and Maritime Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis made during the opening of the recent 14th “Navigator 2014 – The Shipping Decision Makers Forum”.

The connections offered by the Egnatia Highway in northern Greece are considered a strong incentive for activity at the port of Igoumenitsa, according to Italy’s Grimaldi Group. Igoumenitsa is a coastal city in northwestern Greece.

Greece’s financial crisis has taken its toll on one of the country’s strongest sectors, shipping, with five of the country’s largest companies selling off a total of 16 vessels and seeing their fleet reduced from 81 ships in 2008 to 65 at the end of 2013, a recent study by XRTC Business Consultants found.

The establishment of Greece as an international shipping hub was one of the main highlights of this year’s Capital + Vision 2014 conference held recently in Athens.