The ports around Greece are attracting more and more tourists as Greece ranked third among the cruise destinations in Europe after Spain and Italy. The Greek ports and mainly Piraeus attract more and more visitors after the lifting of cabotage.
Piraeus’ Port from the beginning of 2013 until July recorded a rise of 11.7 percent in transit passenger, while in total 1.8 million tourists on ships visited the country in comparison with 1.2 million visitors in 2012. The estimations say that until the end of 2013 the arrivals will reach 5.5 percent.
According to the data, every tourist spends daily an average of 200 euros ($260.) It is estimated that this year there will be the additional revenues of one billion euros ($1.3 billion) from transit passengers and two billion euros from the passengers at the ports of departure.
There are similar rises at other ports in the country, with a jump of 62 percent at Heraklion in Crete, 20.5 percent at Kefalonia, 23 percentin Corfu and 30 percent for Santorini.
The revenues could be further increased, if particular changes were to take place at the the working hours of the museums and archaeological sites, stressed representatives of the sector.
At the same time, the data show that the passengers of coastal shipping were reduced. The first semester of 2013 the drop reached 30 percent while in July 2013 around 30,000 passengers less travelled for the islands of the Aegean Sea in comparison with last year. However, August the traditional month of vacations for the Greek who live in the cities, recorded a rise in the number of passengers of domestic tourism.
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