Europe’s biggest cruise companies have already deployed 18 vessels in the East Mediterranean and other European destinations and plan to ramp up their operations with 28 ships in June and 50 in July, before reaching this summer’s maximum target of 60 operational cruise ships in August.

More than half of those vessels will be deployed in Greek waters, according to Ioannis Plakiotakis, Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy, whose speech marked the official opening of this year’s digital Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum on Tuesday.

“Forty cruise ships are expected to operate in Greek waters and 45 ports have their own contingency plans developed in a way to facilitate cruise ships without affecting the experience of passengers, crews or the local communities,” he said.

“Thanks to our national ‘Blue Freedom’ vaccination program, which prioritizes tourism destinations and cruise hotspots, we are optimistic that this year will be substantially better than the last,” he said in his opening remarks.

This article was first published on ekathimerini.com.