The Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) is investing 294 million euros over a five-year period to upgrade its existing infrastructure and to boost its competitiveness in the East Med cruise sector, it was announced during the opening day of the 4th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum on Tuesday.
According to PPA’s manager of Strategic Planning & Marketing Department, Theodora Riga, a large part of the investment will support Greece’s cruise sector as it includes the expansion of the Southern port with capacity for four new cruise berths.
The plans also include the development of hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, bars and more, designed to make Piraeus Port a leading East Mediterranean cruise line homeport.
“The planned infrastructure improvements will benefit the cruise sector overall by providing best-in-class customer service experience to the operators of the cruise ships as well as by enhancing the overall experience of their guests,” said Riga.
Piraeus currently boasts a total of 2.8kms in quay length with a draft of up to 11m tide free. It has between 9-11 simultaneous berthing places. The expansion plans are expected to add a further 1,65kms of quay length further strengthening the Port’s capacity by roughly 50 percent.
“New value added services for the cruise lines and passengers are at the core of Piraeus Port Authority’s vision to promote overall product awareness in the Chinese market and act as a facilitator to capture higher volumes of tourists from the Far East,” Riga said.
