The island is a top tourist destination for thousands of visitors
Credentialed by the strong brand name “Rhodes” and with comparative advantages its uniqueness, historical, cultural heritage, impressive monuments, its incomparable natural beauty, as well as the warm hospitality of its people, which make its tourism product exceptional, the island of Rhodes is one of the most popular cruise ports and a top tourist destination for thousands of visitors, including passengers cruise ships.
With smiles and optimism, Rhodes welcomed today, Saturday 20 January 2024, at 07:00, the first, for this year’s tourist season, approximately 890 visitors, most of them from America, of the luxury cruise ship “Viking Saturn” which approached its port island originating from Heraklion, Crete.
The Municipality of Rhodes, with the Deputy Mayor of Tourism and Culture, George Toppos, the Deputy Mayor of Communication and Administrative Services, George Pattas, the President of the Municipal Council of Rhodes, Kyriakos Kasapis and the President of the Municipal Port Fund of the South Dodecanese, Vassilis Vagianakis, the Tourism Directorate of The Municipality of Rhodes, with its executives, and the island’s tourism operators, extended a warm welcome to the captain, the officials, the crew and of course the passengers of the cruise ship of the Viking Cruises company that made a “football” in the arrivals of cruise ships in Rhodes for the new year .
Executives of the Tourism Directorate of the Municipality Rhodes they distributed printed and digital informational material about the island and melekounia to the tourists, while answering their questions about the attractions they have time to visit. The first visitors to Rhodes declared themselves excited by the warm welcome and thanked the organizers for the welcome.
All those present were given a tour of the cruise ship and followed by the ceremonial exchange of plaques and gifts between the vice mayor of Tourism and Culture and the captain of the ship, Captain Anders Steen, as well as the president of the South Dodecanese Port Fund with the captain.
“The exploitation of all the comparative advantages of the island of Rhodes, nature, history, culture, infrastructure, lead to the further development of marine tourism, establishing Rhodes in the cruise market and in the options of approaches of international cruise companies for this year, making 2024 the year- a milestone for the cruise in Rhodes”, underlined Mr. Toppos, at the same time emphasizing the optimistic messages coming this year for a large number of cruise ship approaches to the island’s port.
Also present at the reception of the cruise ship and the awarding ceremony of honorary plaques were the Port Facility Security Officer, Panagiotis Dokos, representatives of the Port Authority of Rhodes and other local authorities, as well as the responsible shipping agent Pavlos Georgiadis.
Mr. Georgiadis mentioned that the ships of the company “Viking Cruises” have more than 35 approaches every year to the port of Rhodes, expressing optimism that in 2024 the cruise on the island will do better than last year.
It is noted that the cruise ship “Viking Saturn” will depart at 18:00 for Kusadasi and will again approach the port of Rhodes on January 28, 2024.
