Louis Cruises this past Friday during the annual Lloyds List Greek Shipping Awards ceremony in Athens, was awarded the “2010 Passenger Line of the year”.
The Greek Shipping Minister, government officials as well as a number of leading personalities from the political, business and shipping community of Greece honored the prestigious ceremony with their presence.
The important award was received by Louis Loizou, Executive Director of Louis Group on behalf of his father Costakis Loizou, the Group’s Executive Chairman and the 8,500 Louis Group dedicated members of staff. Louis Loizou expressed great pleasure for this honoring recognition and said that the award coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Group’s founding back in 1935 and 55 years since Louis Group started its successful operations in Greece.
When referring to the difficult times that Greece currently faces, L. Loizou emphasized the great future Greek tourism and especially cruising has and urged everyone to believe in this potential and work hard in reestablishing Greece to its leading position on the world cruising map. He then noted that: “Unfortunately, so far, we have not altogether examined this issue in depth so as to take the necessary steps and develop cruising by capitalizing on Greece’s competitive advantages”. He also referred to the various decisions taken on cruising and stated that: “these decisions did not take into consideration the overall and long-term benefits cruising can have in Greece but were instead providing only short term solutions”. In this regard, he proposed that the government, the relevant authorities, the trade unions, the ship-owners and others must discuss this issue exhaustively and coordinate their actions so that “Greece will become the number 1 cruise area in Europe, with huge financial benefits for the economy and the country overall”.
This award constitutes a rewarding recognition for the 25year-long successful history of Louis Cruises. In his closing remarks Mr. Loizou expressed his sincere thanks to the more than 700 Greek officers and crew that are employed aboard the Louis fleet as well as to the 2,500 dedicated members of staff the Group employs in Greece whose efforts have led to this important award.
