Piraeus, 19.09.2014
Press Release
PPA SA participated actively in Seatrade Med, which was held in Barcelona from the 15th to the 18th September 2014, through its own booth and talks at all levels of cruise decision making.
Seatrade Med complies, after Seatrade Miami, the world's biggest cruise event, involving all the cruise lines, large ports and national port authorities, international institutions (CLIA, ESPO, MedCruise) and hundreds of business representatives from the area of the port industry.
Both the Conference and the exhibition events were attended by the President & CEO of PPA Mr. Giorgos Anomeritis, the Gen. Director and Chairman of MedCruise Mr. Stavros Chatzakos and Deputy Cruise Manager Mr D. Agrapidis. At the two-day conference contacts, negotiations and agreements between PPA and top executives of the cruise lines were made, as well as with national delegations and ports.
Particular impression was caused and important agreements were concluded on the occasion of the new cruise port of PPA SA, which will turn Piraeus into a main hub of the East Mediterranean in 2017.
The President of the PPA Mr. G. Anomeritis met with the President of ESPO (European Sea Ports Organisation) Mr. Santiago Garcia - Milà, the Chairman of Seatrade Mr. Chris Heyman, the President of the Port of Barcelona Mr. Sixte Cambra, the President of CLIA Mr. P. Vago, Ms. Carla Salvado, the new President of MedCruise, Mr. R. Perrochio Managing Director of Venice, because of the specific problem that has arisen in Venice, and especially the representatives of the ports of the Mediterranean from Spain to Turkey and of course Cyprus.
During the Conference the Cruise port Associations Cruise Baltic, Cruise Europe, Cruise Norway and MedCruise, signed a cooperation memorandum with the ESPO strategic cooperation, thus creating the European Network of Associations of Passenger Cruise Ports and Harbors. As the Secretary General of ESPO Mrs. Isabelle Rykbost and MedCruise General Secretary Mr. Thanos Pallis commented, the Network aims to strengthen the voice of the cruise ports and coastal shipping in European institutions, as up to now in the dominant position they had freight terminals. Thus, for the first time ESPO is promoting institutional network through the cruise, which will soon introduce a Code of Good Practice for the cruise ports and coastal shipping. It goes without saying that these decisions significantly favor Piraeus, since in general influential and sizes, will be calculated apart from containers and car-terminal, the cruise and coastal shipping, which are predominant sizes for PPA and the port of Piraeus.
Finally, within the context of enhancing Piraeus as a home-porting port further partnership discussions with large groups of cruise ships have taken place, which are expected to be finalized in October 2014.
