Cruise: The inclusion of Thessaloniki on the world map – Economic Postman
The inclusion of Thessaloniki in its sector is proving to be dynamic cruisewith the evidence showing 23% increase on cruise ships that will make it in 2023 versus 2022.
This year to end with 61 arrivals at the port of Thessaloniki, a record number for the data of the port of the city to date, however in 2023 as shown by the planned approaches the milestone year will take place as 75 cruise ships are expected. It is characteristic that even if no additional cruise ships are added next year, the increase between 2023 and 2022 will reach 23%.
Read also: Record year for cruises in Greece
Transportation to home
As voria.gr reports, the first arrival at the port of Thessaloniki for 2023 will take place on February 10. The cruise ship is “Viking Sky” and its next destination will be Kusadasi.
Last scheduled increase for 2023 to be that of the cruise ship “Celestyal Olympia” on December 27th. Next port for this particular cruise ship is Volos. The majority of cruise ships in 2023 are expected in July with 12 arrivals, August with 9 and September with 10.
It is noted that according to her data Union of Ports of Greecethe best year for a cruise in Thessaloniki in the previous decade was 2015, when 35 cruise ships docked carrying 26,356 passengers.
However, the data of this year and of the next one show that Thessaloniki is becoming an increasingly attractive destination, after years of efforts, now dynamically entering the world map of maritime tourism while at the same time finding its place not only on the map . of the cruise, but also of the “home port”, i.e. a port of start and end of a cruise, with the possibility of embarking and/or disembarking passengers.
It is estimated that in the case that a cruise ship just passes through a port (call visit) 80 euros per day per person are spent, while in the case of home porting, 170 euros are spent per person per day.
According to the sectors, when a cruise ship docks in the port of Thessaloniki, workers from 22 different professions are employed (e.g. shops and people, tour guides and tourist offices, museums and archaeological sites, shipping offices, etc.) therefore the economic impact is extremely important for the wider region.
Travel savings for Serbian, Romanian and Polish journalists
A family trip (fam trip) for expert Serbian, Romanian and Polish journalists, with the aim of developing the cruise starting from the port of Thessaloniki, was organized by the Region of Central Macedonia, within the framework of its strategic cooperation with the Thessaloniki Port Authority.
The Region of Central Macedonia organized the trip for eight journalists, with ports of embarkation and disembarkation in Thessaloniki and its initiative aimed to promote the city as a starting point for cruises to the Greek islands and highlight the new tourist service of the port of Thessaloniki in the specific markets – targets. The initiative was launched in collaboration with the EOT Offices in the three countries.
As part of the trip, the journalists were hosted in the city of Thessaloniki, getting to know its more than a thousand-year history, culture and metropolitan character, while the seven-night “Idyllic Aegean” cruise followed, with the “Celestyal Crystal” cruise ship, which also disembarked ( homeporting) every Sunday at the port of Thessaloniki.
As the Vice-Regional Governor for Tourism, Alexandros Thanos, stated, “continuing the strategic importance of the cooperation with ΟΛTH, we are proceeding with the implementation of actions to promote Thessaloniki as a cruise starting point, so that we can place the world cruise map as a dynamic destination from the movement of cruise. in the Southeast Mediterranean. We selected journalists from the Balkans in order to present this product to tourists, who also have road (and therefore easier) access to Central Macedonia, making them potential recipients of the cruise service.”