According to a report in the Greek Reporter, Greece is looking at the possibility of losing 30 percent of its cruise tourism in 2017.
"Based on cruise ship itineraries for 2017, the Eastern Mediterranean destinations will be reduced to Piraeus, the Saronic Gulf, the Cyclades islands, Crete and south Dodecanese islands. Many cultural and historical destinations are off the itineraries for 2017," writes Philip Chrysopoulos.
This year, Greece saw a double-digit increase in cruise tourism, but that is not sustainable.
SETE representative Andreas Stylianopoulos noted that "this year's double-digit increase in the number of cruise passengers is purely coincidental, and is due to the problems encountered by Turkey after the coup attempt and resulted in a transfer of services to Greece."
And, while Turkey remains off the list of cruise destinations a the moment, Greece is not a stand in.
"Many Turkish destinations are cancelled, and since many of the Greek destinations were transfer points to Turkey, the Greek destinations are cancelled as well," writes Chrysopoulos.
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Businesses will have to prepare for the downturn.
"This will affect hotels, shops, catering services transport and trade in Greek ports and lead to significant public revenue losses," Chrysopoulos points out.
For more information on Greek travel, read on here.
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