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Turkey's failed coup throws more uncertainty into Eastern Med cruising

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Celestyal Olympia - diverted to Samos
Celestyal Cruises has been forced to rejig its three- and four-day cruise programme out of Piraeus and Laviron to the Greek Islands and Turkey in the wake of the failed coup by Turkish army officers.

Though the uprising seems to have had little impact on shipping generally, it has left a mark on the cruising sector with Eastern Mediterranean cruise programmes having to be re-thought, as more operators drop calls at Turkish ports, at least in the short-term.

Piraeus-based Celestyal, Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Celebrity were among those with ships heading for Turkey when news broke of an army faction's bid to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The four replaced calls at Kusadasi with stops in Greece or days at sea. Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Cunard, Seabourn, Silversea, Windstar, Star Clippers and TUI Cruises also have calls scheduled in Turkey.

Celebrity has swapped Bodrum with Sicily, while Celestyal Olympia and Celestyal Crystal, which alternate three- and four-day itineraries, were both diverted to Samos, July 16, with passengers spending the day there, rather than half a day.

A Celestyal official on board Crystal said the company will 'watch the situation in Turkey, with passenger security and comfort uppermost in the mind. For the present, calls have been canceled and decisions on programmes will be made in the coming days.'

Celestyal Crystal homeports at Turkey's Kusadasi and was due to disembark and embark passengers there on July 16. Instead, Turkish passengers were transferred to Kusadasi by ferry from Samos and vice versa.

Carnival has also said it is monitoring the situation in conjunction with global security experts and is yet to make a determination with respect to Carnival Vista's future calls in Kusadasi.

Meanwhile, a Holland America vessel is still set to call at Kusadasi July 23, but the company said it will assess trips on a case-by-case basis.

The Greek cruise sector is dismayed by the Turkish situation with Theodore Kontes, president of the Greek Association of Cruise Ship Owners and Maritime Agencies (EEKFN), saying the drama caused by the attempted coup once again underlines the problems of cruising in what many believe to be the most attractive cruise market in the world.

He said he was especially concerned by the challenge facing Celestyal Cruises, 'which has such an important role in cruising in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean out of Greece.'

Kontes said the association is to meet with officials from the foreign and migration policy ministries July 22 to discuss the issue of Turkish visas, 'a very important issue for the cruise sector.'