by Theodore Kontes*,
We are already in the middle of the cruising season of 2026, and we have noticed the updated results of this season, as well as the foreseen final numbers.
The main reasons that affect the season are the following:
- Mainly it is the Middle East War, whose current situation is not clear yet and creates a lot of reactions in East Med and affects our southeast area and islands.
In addition, almost all programs in East Med including Israel, Egypt and Lebanon have been cancelled partly affecting our destinations in the area (Greek destinations).
Also, at a very early stage of the season, several cruisers(6 in total) were trapped inside the Gulf of Hormuz for a long time, resulting in several cruise cancellations to our destinations (4 cruisers)with about 250 calls and about 375000 guests having cancelled their cruises at the very beginning of the season. Thereafter several nationalities are still very concerned to take cruises like Israelis, part of USA and several Europeans.
Starting with a very negative impact, now the bookings started to get increased and numbers have improved considerably. We are expecting to see the final results by the end of the season.
- The economic negative impact due to the higher inflations and the increase of the prices is another concern for the season, since guests are trying to have limited vacations including cruising, who choose shorter destinations and cruise lines special offers or alternative type of holidays.
The bunkering is at the top of the list for considerable increases but also all other expenses like supplies, food etc., as well as the port costs, airfares and other services are increased, resulting big financial issues in cruise lines and maybe these extra costs will be passed on to the cruise fare resulting the cruise rate increases.
- In addition, there are other reason affecting the Greek cruise planning and these are:
- Various strikes that are organized in several destinations from the tourist operation point of view, tourist busses, archeological spaces, etc.
- Also, reactions were made in several destinations for specific actions taken like the Israeli cruisers, who tried to keep passengers on board. Also, various decisions are taken by the local authorities and governmental implementation.
Santorini is one of them who decided to split the guests in two different disembarkation ports by tenders (Fira/Athinion 70% – 30% respectively), with disappointed guests who were waiting for the cable train to transfer them for several hours, and others who have not had organized their Shorex program properly. Several cruise lines are reconsidering these decisions to be against the organized operation and have decided to change destinations (Preferably Souda).
- The application recently affected by the tender boats paying extra fee per trip for security reasons without performing any extra services, gives another extra cost which of course will be passed on to the guests.
- Last year the extra cruise fee application was at a very high rating, particularly in a few destinations, Santorini/Mikonos 20€ and all others 5€ without having any discussions with the authorities, cruise lines and related unions, something that created another negative concern in the industry. These cruise fees need to be reviewed to several destinations depending on traffic/capacity.
- In addition, perhaps there will be more charges involved, as per recently suggested by the European touristic Associations and refer that they will get an extra tax for cruise guests of about €15/pp for each port of call since they have discovered that the cruise tourism business has about 50% less tax payments in comparison with other tourism in hotels, etc. These may be considered for the tax-free supplies including bunkers, food and other supplies, in which case all other tourist accommodation, food and other supplies, they are paying all costs including VAT.
It is called TRANSPORT & ENVIRONMENT (T&E) and they are expected to receive yearly about €500M in Europe only.
The EU-ETS which is already applied seems to cover only very small amount of environmental cost. Therefore, they are looking to apply such an extra tax fee for covering the entire environmentally improved infrastructures and services.
- In addition, there is another problem. Disappointed passengers with the implementation of EES (Entry/Exit) Schengen control. This system was supposed to be implemented two years ago, but no infrastructures and services were prepared timely.
Now, it is implemented from this year on, and extensive delays have occurred in the airports and harbors, since they are not yet ready to apply.
Sometimes guests reconsider European destinations at this stage, and we are on risk for €41M arrivals and US$45.5M, including guests in cruising with 4 main markets like USA, UK, Canada and Australia.
The homeporting in cruising may be affected negatively due to such great delays in airports and harbors.
- Finally, the reason which affected slightly this season is the Football World cup (Mountial 2026), which took place this year and several visitors preferred to travel to USA, Canada and watch several games. Air fares all provided at higher prices.
All the above-mentioned guided the cruise lines and operators to change their plans and make other plannings for the future.
Considering all the above, it is very important to take several decisions and actions for reconsidering in order to keep our very successful industry at a higher standard of service, as well as to improve the numbers even further.
With the latest follow-up, the results of industry for the season 2026 in Greece, we may expect is the best scenario to conclude last year’s results (2025) with about more than 6000 total calls in all destinations and about 8.4 M passengers’ arrivals.
In general, there are also other processes in industry and mainly the increase of the numbers of cruisers of small and medium size, in which case we may notice that the calls have increased but the number of passengers is not as per previous respective numbers, but they have considerably decreased.
Reviewing the expectations and the contracts of new buildings, we have concluded that the small and medium-sized luxury cruisers have increased considerably compared with those before the mega cruisers. Small sized luxury cruisers are mainly expedition vessels which were also trading in winter to specific destinations and in the summer in Greek islands even in smaller harbors expanding even further our cruising destination ports.
Finally, the berth allocation system per destination with central control needs to be re-organized considering the local destination infrastructures and facilities.
In parallel, once again, it is important to consider a realistic number of guests daily per destination to avoid overtourism that affects the local people, as well as guests to be able to enjoy their stay and visit all archeological and other important sights.
Through SMM Hamburg 2026 exhibitors and visitors may consider all these points mentioned and it is important to be re-discussed and maybe certain technical or services proposals to resolve such issues.
*Theodore Kontes – the expert on Sea Tourism and beyond
