A pleasant surprise awaited the 5,000 cruise passengers and 1,600 crew members of “Carnival Vista” that visited the Port of Piraeus. Piraeus Port Authority S.A. Management organised a cultural event including a performance of the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, as well as traditional dancing performed by the Keratsini Cultural Club dance team, called “THYMAITADAI”.
PPA S.A. launched its cooperation with the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus with the show “Sea on the edge, Greece – Climbing the sea” directed by N. Diamantis, which consists of a composition of texts from ancient tragedies and poems combined on a “journey” where the ancient Greek theater meets poetry and Greek traditional folk music.
There is no doubt that various benefits result from the increase of cruise traffic, and those affect both the local community and the national economy. The benefits are even more when Greek ports are used as homeports in cruise itineraries.
Many cruise companies (such as: Celestyal Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard Line, Costa Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, etc.) already use the port of Piraeus as a homeport, while the current cooperation with Carnival Cruise Lines will contribute to further development of homeporting activities, as the 336 mt long Carnival Vista with capacity of 5,300 passengers is expected to transfer in total more than 50,000 passengers from/to Piraeus during this summer. The results of this cooperation are already reflecting in the provisional figures of the first semester of 2016, with the total increase in turnaround traffic standing at +14% comparing with 2015.
PPA S.A. serves in the best and safest way over 10,000 passengers in every turnaround call. Recent upgrades of infrastructure in the Passenger Terminal “Themistocles” are summarised as follows:
• Creation of new indoor passenger waiting areas of 1,000 seats with air conditioning and all necessary equipment for passenger check-in (60 posts).
• Conversion of the first floor of the departure hall into a special waiting room and checkpoint (X-RAYS) for the ship’s crew.
• Creation of additional posts for passenger screening, suitcases and hand luggage (X-RAYS).
The event was attended by executives of PPA S.A. including the General Manager Mr. Stavros Hatzakos, who stated: “PPA S.A., through trade agreements and strategic investments, is currently working to attract even more cruise vessels and homeporting activities, and in this context gladly salutes actions such as the one of the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus aiming to further enhance the attractiveness of the Greek tourism product”.
