Greece reopens six ports to cruise ships

Greece reopened six of its main ports to cruise ships on Saturday, a first for this tourist season plagued by the novel coronavirus pandemic, but no building is expected for three weeks.

In a letter this week addressed to the Cruise Lines International Association and three major cruise operators, Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis said the ports of Piraeus (Athens), Rhodes, Heraklion, Volos, Corfu and Katakolo would again accept travelers, ANA reported.

After docking in one of these six ports, ships will be able to go elsewhere in Greece, depending on local conditions with regard to the pandemic.

But the Greek minister in charge of maritime transport, Giannis Plakiotakis, said on Thursday that cruises could not resume until after August 20. He claimed that international cruise passengers had expressed their wish to return to Greek waters, but added that " cruises are an international business and face serious problems due to the coronavirus ".

A country little affected by the Covid so far

With a quarter of its economy dependent on tourism, Greece is seeking to revive this sector by highlighting its relatively low rate of coronavirus contamination.

Authorities have so far announced nearly 4,500 cases of Covid-19 and 206 deaths. The country reopened its land borders in June, before authorizing on July 1 a resumption of flights, mainly European, to its airports. Since then, some 340 cases of contamination have been confirmed for a total of 1.3 million travelers, according to the Greek civil protection agency.

However, the result is below expectations: the occupancy rate of hotels is only a fifth, according to the professional union of the Greek hotel industry, and local cruise passengers do not expect reservations to resume before September.