The Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum 2017 explores prospects for the development of maritime tourism

Entrepreneurs and top executives from the worldwide cruise and marine tourism industry have visited Athens on the 23rd and 24th of May to discuss the developments in their sector within the 4th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum.

At the international conference and exhibition that is being held every two years and which this year took place at the Athens International Conference Center, specialized speakers and stakeholders from across the region analyzed the challenges and sought strategies and solutions. At the same time, it has been an excellent opportunity to attract more cruise ships and tourists choosing recreational boats for their holidays.

The global cruise industry continues to show a dynamic growth path in 2017, but current geopolitical tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean have negatively affected the region as a destination for maritime tourism. In an effort to reverse this trend, top executives of this specialized industry met at the Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum so that our region could benefit from the continued boom of the cruise industry.

Carefully selected topics discussed during the conference may lead to solutions that will facilitate the recovery of the region, for the benefit of both cruise companies and local economies.

The speeches of Mr. Stavros Katsikadis, President of Marinas Union of Greece and Mr. Eleftherios Hadjiazharias, President of the Cyprus Port Authority, were also focused on finding such solutions. Specifically, following the example of Greece in this field, Cyprus Ports has been preparing for privatization for quite some time. The questions raised by the speakers are whether privatization is likely to create more attractive cruise ports and marinas and how feasible it is to turn them into attractive packages for serious investors.

The urge and intention, stresses the executive director of Posidonia, Mr. Theodoros Vokos, is "interested parties of the interdependent destinations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea to work together to realize the overall dynamics that the region has to offer". He adds that "in order to convince cruise companies to invest more in the region and to add new routes, we need to develop a long-term vision based on mutually beneficial strategies designed to create a coherent, consistent and attractive product that will boost demand for the region and add new destinations and new ports with regional homeporting capabilities to the cruise map».

"Together with a parallel privatization program of ports and marinas of strategic importance, which is already at an advanced stage of planning, it is more than certain that the overall product of sea tourism in Greece in the cruise and yachting sector will benefit from long-term benefits, provided that the right measures are taken" pointed out Th. Vokos.

The main feature of this year's Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum was once again an enlarged exhibition space. The exhibition is the ideal platform for marketing ports and destinations, suppliers of marine equipment, airports, tour operators, marinas, technical support companies, media publishers, new technologies, managers and yachting brokers to promote their business proposition and meet potential partners.