Greece's Foreign and Migration Policy ministries are said to be examining the issuing of visas and have agreed to meet with representatives of the cruise sector on 22 July to discuss the issue.

Theodore Kontes, president of the Greek Association of Cruise Ship Owners and Maritime Agencies (EEKFN) said the drama caused by the attempted coup once again underlined the problems facing cruising in what many believe to be the most attractive cruise market in the world.

Kontes confirmed the meeting, saying Turkish visas, "a very important issue
for the cruise sector". 

While the failed coup by Turkish army officers seems to have had little impact on shipping generally, the cruising sector with Eastern Mediterranean cruise programmes have had to be rejigged their programmes, as operators dropped calls at Turkish ports. It is not known when regular calls will be re-instated.

RCCL, Carnival, Celebrity and Celestyal Cruises 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 quickly 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 Cruises' CELESTYAL OLYMPIA and CELESTYAL CRYSTAL, the former on a four day cruise, and latter sailing a three-day cruise were both diverted to Samos, where guests spent the day, rather than the scheduled half a day. Celestyal "will watch the situation in Turkey, with passenger security and comfort uppermost in the mind. For the present, calls have been cancelled 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 16 July. Instead, Turkish passengers were transferred to Kusadasi by ferry from Samos and visa versa.

Carnival has also said it was 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.