Sea Tourism

Talk around the Piraeus harbor area these days centers on a plethora of meetings being held in a general effort to form new coastal shipping alliances and merges, such as the rumored alliance between Attica Enterprises (Superfast Ferries) and Minoan Lines. Then there’s the merger talks said to be underway between NEL and Dane Lines – Anek Lines holds a stake in both.

Galileo Hellas now offers an online booking and ticketing system for Greek ferry lines. The system, Ferrynet, a product created through cooperation with Anite Travel Systems, provides travel agencies and subscribers with access to seat availability, online reservations and ticketing.

Attica Enterprises, the holding company for Superfast Ferries, and cruise company Costa Crociere, owned by Carnival Cruise Lines, signed signed a letter of intent to create two joint ventures in cruise and ferry operations.

Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Anomeritis last month presented a new draft bill for coastal shipping. It includes a schedule of shipping routes that cover the whole country and one that is binding for passenger shipping firms.

The first of two new ultra modern ferry vessels for the Cyclades routes slid gently into the waters outside of the Daewoo Shipyards in Korea last month. Christened Blue Star Paros, the first vessel now undergoes its inside dressing stage with some of the most luxurious furnishings to be found on ferries sailing Greek waters.

FerryScreen, a reservations and online ticketing system for coastal shipping companies that’s owned by Analysis SA says it issued more than one million coastal lines’ tickets for Anek and Blue Star Ferries this year and by the end of 2001 the number will exceed 1,250,000.

The 2004 Olympiad provides the greatest opportunity for the reformation and development of Piraeus, said Antonis Nikolopoulos, of Kantor Management Consultants, at the recent international conference EuroMare 2001. Piraeus Port …

New strategic partner agreements, even with European cruise and ferry companies, are expected to see the light of day in the near future, according to high ranking executives of Greece’s major ferry lines. And Greek ferry companies may play a major role in implementing such deals.

Coastal shipping companies are expected to ask Merchant Marine Minister Christos Papoutsis to consent to fare hikes of up to 20 percent. They also called on him to extend the increased summer-season fare schedule into the winter. Ferry operators say higher insurance premiums are the problem. Insurers have raised their claims to “astronomical proportions,” they complain, and “premium increases vary, according to the ship’s age and type, between 50 and 700 percent.” Fuel is another worry.

Although both Superfast Ferries and partner Strintzis Lines (Blue Star Ferries) increased sales and market share during the first half of this year, profits for both are down. When Attica Enterprises, owners of Superfast Ferries, last month announced its first-half financial results for this year, it said that consolidated sales increased by 28.5% to reach 94.7 million euros, or 32.3 billion drachmas, against 73.6 million for the corresponding period last year.