Τhe 8th Posidonia Sea Tourism Forum’s Conference and Exhibition will be held in Heraklion, Crete, taking place on May 6-7, 2025. Crete is Greece’s largest island and one of its most popular and long-established tourism and cruise destinations. Heraklion is the island’s major city and a significant air and sea hub. The port of Heraklion is Crete’s busiest, offering both homeport and transit call facilities and following a successful 2024 season is expecting to welcome over 225 cruise ship calls in 2025 and continue its impressive growth path.

Apart from CLIA and MedCruise who will again be actively involved in the Forum, cruise line executives and industry decision makers with extensive knowledge and operational knowhow of the Mediterranean will also be attending the event. During the Conference, speakers will share their thoughts and address issues common throughout the whole of this destination-rich region.

At the same time, there has been a great deal of press coverage relating to over-tourism in a number of cities and destinations throughout the Mediterranean. Is this a new reality that the tourism industry must come to terms with or is it actually a phenomenon of circumstantial overcrowding or even limited to specific locations? Can the cruise sector effectively help mitigate overcrowding in some of the marquee ports of call that seem to be most affected?