Greece implements cruise tax and MSC warns passengers of port chargers

• Greece is instituting a new cruise tax on passengers, which comes into effect on July 21.
• Cruise line MSC Cruises has informed passengers that they will be charged the tax themselves at each Greek port that they visit.
• When visiting the islands of Santorini or Mykonos, the tax is $35 per passenger.

Cruisers visiting Greek ports like Santorini and Mykonos will now have to pay a 20 euro (AUD$35) which was rolled out last week.

The amount will be 20 Euros for those arriving in Santorini and Mykonos, and five euros for all other destinations. 

The price of the tax will decreased outside of peak months, with the idea of spreading tourist traffic athroughout the year, rather than all tourists arriving in the peak months of June, July, August and September.

Greece will be aiming to bring in 50 million Euros a year (AUD$88 million) with the new tax, which it plans to spend on new infrastructure.

Last year Greece received five million cruise ship visitors, this represents about 8% of the 40.7 million tourists that visited the country in total.

MSC Cruises has sent an email to its guests visiting the country that it would be passing the cost down to their guests.

The cruise line wrote in an email: “This tax, similar to those already in force for hotels and other types of accommodation facilities, is designed to support local infrastructure, promote sustainable tourism, and improve the visitor experience.

“For your convenience, MSC Cruises will prepay this tax for you directly to the Greek authorities. We will simply add the tax to your onboard account the night before each call in a Greek port.

“MSC does not determine or control this expense, which is established and imposed by the Greek authorities and applied to all cruise companies operating in Greece.”

The email also mentioned that if guests don’t disembark, the charge will be automatically removed. 

How do cruise taxes work with cruise lines?

Port taxes are a mandatory fee and cruise lines will generally pass them onto passengers. While some include them into the advertised price, some do not.

It is important to remember that port fees are not similar with gratuities, where guests have the option to remove the charge. Cruise lines do not make a profit from these fees.

Before a cruise starts, the line will add up the port charges from the different ports of calls on the itinerary and the cost of these port fees will be passed onto the passengers. Different places around the world charge the lines different amounts, depending on the size of the ship and the agreement with the company.

The more places you visit, the higher your port charges will be.

Other European cities and regions currently considering higher port fees include Iceland, Barcelona and Mallorca in Spain, Lisbon as well as Norway. Other destinations around the world such as Mexico, The Bahamas, Hawaii, New Zealand and Alaska are also adding or looking at adding new taxes on cruise ship passengers.