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Crete tourism officials and Heraklion Port target Chinese passengers

Crete tourism officials and Heraklion Port target Chinese passengers
Representatives from Crete’s tourism industry including the Region of Crete and Heraklion Port Authority made a visit to China’s Shanghai and Fujian Province to promote cruising in the Aegean including Crete as well as wedding packages to the Greek island to local tour operators.

President and managing director of Heraklion Port Authority, Ioannis Bras, said the trade mission’s program included visiting four Chinese provinces with a combined population of 600m and scheduled meetings with senior representatives of corresponding local authorities and tourism sectors.

Cruising is already attracting growing numbers of Chinese consumers, as the major cruise lines expand deployment into the local market and this alone justifies the importance of raising market awareness in China on the possibility of visiting Greece and the East Mediterranean on a cruise ship, said Bras.

As the Chinese are already traveling abroad in growing numbers, penetrating this vast market is of great importance for Greece’s future as a tourist destination, he added.

Also, it looks like cruising will soon see its share of this market grow, as projections estimate that by 2020 Chinese cruise passengers will reach annually the six to eight million mark.