“The port of Heraklion is a key pillar for the development of cruise tourism in Greece. The doubling of cruise ships and passengers for 2022 is another vote of confidence in Crete by travelers and companies in the industry,” said the Minister of Tourism, Vassilis Kikilias, during his meeting with the Managing Director of the Port of Heraklion.

The first cruise ships will arrive in the port this month, while on Sunday, April 3, the first cruise embarks with its home port in Heraklion.

According to official data so far, both the number of cruise ships in the port of Heraklion and their passenger numbers this year are expected to increase by more than 100% compared to 2021.

More specifically, Heraklion is expecting 240 cruise routes this year, while the number of passenger-visitors is estimated to exceed 240,000, when the corresponding figures for 2021 were 118 cruise ships with almost 120,000 passengers.

This article was previously published in Greek at moneyreview.gr.