After the European elections, the Group takes over the reins of Heraklion port – Stagnation in the projects… waiting for the master plan
In mid-June, that is, after the European elections, the arrival of the Grimaldi Group, which as a new investor takes over the reins of the port of Heraklion, charting a new course. However, to see important projects to change the image of the port, two years may pass! Since only the process of making the new master plan a presidential decree requires so much time!
Until then, however, things do not remain stagnant in the port of Heraklion. On the contrary, the port of Heraklion makes its own dynamic presence, contributing the most to the income we expect from tourism on our island…
And for the record, according to OLI figures, 270 cruise ship arrivals are scheduled throughout this year, pushing the arrivals of travelers disembarking on the island to 450,000 (figures that may increase further over the course of the year), from 252 cruise ship arrivals and just 382,500 passengers we had last year.
But the positive messages do not stop here, as expectations are high for 2025 as well, where 300 ship approaches to the port of Heraklion are already planned, with travelers exceeding 500,000!
The plans of the new investors
It is recalled that during the opening of financial offers by TAIPED for the acquisition of 67% of the Heraklion Port Authority, the Grimaldi Group was selected for a total price of 80 million euros. This concession does not include the Venetian Port, Linoperamata and the three ports to the south of Heraklion, namely that of Arbi, Keratokampos and Loutra, for which a new Public Organization will be created to take over their management.
They talked about the plans of the new investors neakriti.gr and “N.K.” the managing director of OLI, Mr. Minas Papadakis, as well as the president of OLI, Mr. Yiannis Vardavas.
“They are also interested in the commercial part of the port, which will be used as a vehicle handling center. That is, the loading and unloading of vehicles, which will arrive in Heraklion with the Group’s ships and then leave for Central Europe or the Middle East. These are mainly electric vehicles. This will be done mainly at piers 4 and 5, which are located on the eastern side of the port. However, the group has also expressed interest in the cruise,” said Mr. Vardavas.
“The Grimaldi Group will manage the port from “Marina” to Nea Halicarnassus. However, in order to carry out important projects in the port, the new master plan will have to be submitted and this requires a long period of time. Imagine that just the process of making the new master plan a Presidential Decree can take two years”, noted Mr. Papadakis.
OPTIMISM
Fast forward to a record year and the cruise
2024 will be an all-time record breaking year for Heraklion cruises. As everything shows, “the cruise has started strongly for the port of Heraklion, where this year we will have 38 home ports from TUI every Friday and expectations are positive for 2025 as well, where we already have around 300 approaches”, said Mr. Papadakis.
“We have worked hard enough to achieve this, and now we are enjoying the fruits of those efforts! This year every Friday we will have a home port ship, which will leave from the port of Heraklion. This means that this ship will fill up at our port, do the entire cruise and come back here again to unload the travelers. Specifically, the ship arrives at the port of Heraklion on Friday morning and leaves in the evening. Home port passengers board tourist buses and come to the port. They have several hours at their disposal in order to wander around the city of Heraklion, go on their excursion, visit archaeological sites and museums, do their shopping, enjoy the sun and the sea, etc. In the evening, the cruise ship departs for some islands and Turkey. Then it returns to the port of Heraklion, where disembarkation takes place, the travelers again board the tourist buses, go to the airport and from there either return to their homelands or continue their vacation”, noted Mr. Vardavas, describing how the cruise guests arriving in Heraklion.
Mostly these are visitors from Central Europe. However, this year there is a large increase in American cruise passengers. And to see this increase in percentages, last year the percentage of cruise passengers hovered around 27%, while this year it is constantly moving upwards. A fact quite important for the profits we expect from tourism, with Americans being considered strong wallets!
University research evidence is important
Regarding the economic contribution of the cruise, the first conclusions of a university research, which is expected to be completed in June 2024, are of great interest. During the research, 2,500 questionnaires have been completed by passengers and 190 by crew.
As found, 80% of cruise ship passengers disembark in our city. Of these, 60% take a tour of the streets of Heraklion and visit museums and archaeological sites, etc. 47% are coming to Greece for the first time and 81% are coming to the city of Heraklion for the first time. 70% answered that they would recommend Heraklion for vacation to a relative or friend and 30% that they would come to the city again. The average expenditure of home port passengers now, during the 8 hours they usually have at their disposal to browse, amounts to 65 euros, while 189 euros is the average expenditure for the crew.
