Piraeus, 19.07.2016
PRESS RELEASE
An "alternative welcome", pleasant surprise awaited 5000 passengers and 1600 crew members of the cruise ship "Carnival Vista". This time the PPA Management held a cultural event with a performance from the Piraeus Municipal Theatre and traditional dances from the Keratsini cultural club dance team, called "THYMAITADAI".
The PPA launched its cooperation with the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus with the show "Sea on the edge, Greece - Climbing the sea" directed by N. Diamantis, a composition of texts from ancient tragedies and poems on a journey where the ancient Greek theater meets poetry and the Greek traditional folk music.
Then took the baton the dance team THYMAITADAI with representative traditional dances rousing the tourists, who also tasted features Greek products (graviera cheese, crackers, olives, feta cheese and raki). The performances will be repeated in other arrivals in the tourist season of 2016.
It is known that benefits from the increase of cruise diffuse both local communities and the national economy, especially when they come from cruise itineraries using Greek ports as ports of departure (homeporting).
Already large cruise companies (such as: Celestyal Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard Line, Costa Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line) using the port of Piraeus for turnaround and the cooperation with Carnival Cruise Lines will contribute to further development of homeporting, since the new ship of Carnival Vista 336 meters long with capacity of 5,300 passengers, is expected to transfer a total of more than 50,000 passengers during the summer of 2016 from and to Piraeus. Note that this is already reflected in the provisional figures of the first half with an increase of 14% in homeporting compared with 2015.
PPA in order to achieve smooth ship and passenger service has implemented a series of measures and now it serves in the best and safest way over
10,000 passengers in every turnaround, in covered areas of 7,500 square meters. These interventions took place in areas within and outside the Passenger Terminal Themistocles are related to improvements of existing infrastructure and equipment and are summarized as follows:
• Creation of new indoor passenger waiting areas of 1000 seats with air conditioning and the necessary equipment to check in (60 posts) for passengers.
• Conversion of the first floor of the departure hall into a special waiting room and checkpoint (X-RAYS) for the ship's crew.
• Creation of additional posts for passenger screening, suitcases and hand luggage (X-RAYS).
The event was attended by executives of PPA and the General Director Mr. Stavros Hatzakos, who stated: “Beyond the efforts made on our part, through trade agreements and the implementation of investments to attract more and more cruise vessels and thus to increase home porting in Greece, actions such as the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus enhance the attractiveness of the Greek tourist product”.
