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Over ten thousand people have cancelled their planned trips and ferry tickets for the Easter holidays and another three thousand have changed their date of departure. According to the ATTICA GROUP data, the two-day strike of the federation of marine workers PNO made seven thousand people cancel their spring vacation trip to the Cycladic islands. ΑΝΕΚ - SUPERFAST has announced that other 3,600 cancelled their ferry tickets to central ports of Crete like Heraklion and Chania.
 
As a result, the ferry tickets from Piraeus to popular Greek islands on Thursday and Friday were sold out. On Thursday, the first ferry, which will leave Piraeus at 7:35 am, will head to Syros, Tinos, Mykonos with 1,440 passengers. Another ship leaving from Piraeus to Paros, Naxos, Santorini at 7:45 am will transport 2,700 people. This route appears to be extremely busy and therefore, the company has announced that there will be a special transfer Piraeus-Paros-Naxos for 1,000 people at 9:15 am.

However, there will be difficulties in implementing the services. Workers of the Rio-Antiriou ferry decided to hold two one-hour strikes - between 8 am and 9 am and between 12 pm and 1 pm on Thursday and Friday. They continue to insist on the demands set by PNO without apparently expecting the government to satisfy them.

Meanwhile, the tourist cruises have run out of patience. Louis Cruises, which is one of the last companies that has not withdrawn its routes from the Greek Mediterranean Sea, has announced that it will not dock at the island of Rhodes this week as planned. The ship carrying 2,000 tourists and staff will dock at the Turkish port of Marmaris Peninsula, which is in direct proximity to the Greek island. The owners of cruise ships are warning that that if the spirits of Greek ports do not calm down, they will not include Greek islands in their routes any longer.

Greek investigative journalist Makis Triadafilopoulos said on air on his radio show that different interests might be hiding behind the strike of sailors, other than the demands for collective labour agreements and the independent health insurance fund. The head of the Association of Travel Agencies George Drakopoulos said that a decline in tourist flows was registered in the first quarter of this year. Greek domestic tourism fell by 50% compared to the same period last year and visits by foreign tourists fell by around 40%. According to the data, about 35% fewer German and UK tourists will visit Greece and their stay will be shorter than in previous years.

Reduced tourist flow is forcing passenger ships to operate at a loss, because not enough tickets are being sold to cover the high cost of fuel. Triadafilopoulos suggests that the union initiative might have been "blessed" by the management of shipping companies in order to minimize losses from the lack of passengers before the holidays. Thus, shipping companies will save on fuel costs during the not so busy days of Holy Week, when the strike will take place and second, they will secure full ships in the last days of the week, which will bring large profits.