Abstract
Cruise industry has increased in popularity all around the world, serving a heterogeneous clientele with well-differentiated expectations and preferences mainly in Asian, European and North American Markets. Greece as one of the most attractive tourism destinations is ranked highly among the most popular cruise destinations in the Mediterranean, mainly due to the country’s geophysical characteristics and the extensive island network. In this paper a short overview of the cruise industry for world-wide and especially for Mediterranean market is presented, while an economic evaluation of a cruise ship mooring dock infrastructure is also performed. The main aim of this paper is to examine the economy impact on both National and Local level, of the cruise ship mooring dock located at the port of Argostoli in Kefalonia using a Discounted Cash Flows (DCF) analysis. Using actual data provided by local port authorities, several scenarios are examined in order to identify to most crucial parameters for a cruise ship mooring dock economic evaluation.