Greek Short Sea Shipping : Initiatives for Further Growth

Prologue: This thesis has been conducted, under the supervision of Dr. Michiel Nijdam , for the master program: Urban, Ports and Transport Economics. The main reason for choosing the topic of the short sea shipping market, is because Short Sea Shipping had become an increasingly important component in European transport planning. Despite the active promotion by the EU, the short sea shipping growth is lagging compared with the road transport mode. The problem of low growth of SSS is larger in Greece. Although that, there were made several investments and many European policies have established, which are aimed to increase the use of SSS, the domestic Greek SSS is still low. These disappointing facts lead me to the question: Which can be the initiatives for further growth of Greek Short Sea Shipping? To support my answer to that question, four main indicators of SSS growth were selected and analyzed. These four indicators are: Relevant policies on SSS, Greek ports , Greek SSS fleet and Greek SSS market. Throughout the research, I have learned more as concerns the Greek SSS market and how it operates. Several master courses such as Port economics, economics of transport firm and logistic services and seminar advanced port economics have helped me in order to answer the main research question. I would like to thank my parents and my sister for their support. Their care, encouragement and love enabled me to overcome difficulties that I faced. The completion of that master thesis would not have been possible without the valuable help of my supervisor. For that reason, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr Michiel Nijdam, who has been very patient in guiding me throughout the research process. His guidance, advices and solid experience, played a catalytic role, in the improvement of my thesis.