Cruising from the Land of Aphrodite

The Louis travel and tourism group was founded by Louis Loizou in 1935 as the first travel agency in Cyprus. Louis Loizou is known as the ‘Father of Cyprus Tourism’ and came from the extended Loizou family. The Greek orthodox population form three quarters of the island population while the Turkish Moslems form the remaining quarter. Cyprus had been successively part of the Greek, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, roman and Byzantine empires. Richard the Lionheart of England won the island in 1191, and began a long period of Western rule by the Knights Templars of the island. In 1489, Cyprus was annexed by Venice but fell to the Turks in 1571, after which the ancestors of the present Turkish Cypriots settled on the island.

 Modern History of Cyprus

Cyprus was ceded to Britain from the ottoman Sultan in 1878, and it became a Crown Colony in 1925. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean, and is now an independent country, but still has two British bases, Akrotiri and Episkopi with two thousand troops, as British sovereign territory within the Greek Cypriot southern part of this divided island. The partition has the northern part occupied by Turkey, and the southern part occupied by Greek Cypriots, with the capital of Nicosia also divided into a Turkish part and a Greek Cypriot part. Limassol is a busy port known as ‘Poseidon’s City’ with fruit canning, wine distilling and carob processing, and an ancient castle lying among port warehouses, ironmongers and other associated businesses.

A guerrilla war began against British rule in 1955 by Greek Cypriots seeking unification (Enosis) with Greece. The EOKA (National organisation of Cypriot Combatants) movement was led politically by archbishop Makarios and militarily by general George Grivas. Three Enosis leaders and archbishop Makarios were deported in March, 1956, and the Turkish representatives of the central island government then reached a compromise with the Greek Cypriots allowing archbishop Makarios to return from exile and be elected the first President of Cyprus in December, 1959.

A move to give Greek Cypriots control of the central government brought civil war in 1963, which was ended by a United Nations force. On 15th July 1974, a military coup deposed archbishop Makarios and appointed President Nikos Sampson, an extremist Greek politician and former EOKA member. The Turkish army invaded the predominantly Turkish northern part to protect the Turkish community, and from where thousands of Greek Cypriots fled to the south. The island was partitioned by a central green Line (or Attila Line) with a Turkish Cypriot Federal State set up in the north. Archbishop Makarios had become President of Cyprus on 16th August 1960 when Cyprus gained her independence from Britain, but his death in August 1977 renewed international concern for the future peaceful security of the island. He had been elected Bishop of Kition, a high Greek orthodox post, in 1948 while still studying in Boston and returned to Cyprus and adopted the name Makarios instead of his real name of Michail Louskos.

Louis Loizou began his business as a small travel agency and gradually expanded into cruising, hotel and catering areas, and it is presently the largest private employer on the island. Tourists flocked to Cyprus, known as the ‘Land of Aphrodite (Venus)’, the goddess of beauty, love and fertility. She was born from sea foam near Cythera, a Greek island, and sailed to Cyprus, where she landed at a beach on the southern coast not far from her sanctuary at Paphos. She was hellenised by Homer as the daughter of Zeus and wife of Hephaestus. Her association with Adonis reflects an old fertility ritual, but that with Eros (Cupid) is mainly literary and postclassical.

Cruising In the Eastern Mediterranean

British tourists interested in classical history and archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean had first cruised to the Greek islands and Cyprus from 1954 with Swan Hellenic Tours. The Hellenic Travellers Club had been set up to further its members’ knowledge of art, history and culture of the old civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Small passenger vessels were chartered including Miaoulis from Nomikos, and Mediterranean (the former Princess Charlotte built in 1908 for Canadian Pacific railways) and Aegean (the former Princess Alice built in 1911 for Canadian Pacific railways) from Typaldos of Greece. In 1960, Tarsus, the former Exochorda built in 1931 in America for American Export Lines, of Turkish Maritime Lines was briefly chartered but her career ended in disaster in December 1960 when she drifted into a blazing tanker in the Sea of Marmara and was burnt out. The Turkish Maritime fleetmate Ankara, built as Iroquois in 1927 in America for Clyde-Mallory Lines, was then chartered for fifteen years until 1975.

The quality of Swan Hellenic guest lecturers made the reputation of these cruises, including the well known archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who became Chairman of the Hellenic Travellers Club in 1957, and had formerly held many posts in archaeology in India, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and was Professor of roman archaeology in the University of London and President of the Society of antiquities. Other eminent guest lecturers included Sir John Wolfenden, Director of the British Museum, and many other eminent Professors in Classics and archaeology with special reference to Greek antiquities from the Universities of oxford, Cambridge and Dublin.

In 1971, Louis Loizou died at the age of 73 years, and was succeeded by his son Costakis Loizou, who had been born in Limassol in 1944. He graduated in Economics from Athens, London and Geneva schools, and completed his studies in 1966 and returned to Cyprus for his military service. He then began working for his father in the Louis Travel agency and family tourism business. He took over from his father as Chairman and Managing Director of these businesses in 1971 together with his brother Vakis. Costakis Loizou then began using ferries to transfer Cyprus immigrants to other countries, as well as sea cruising from Limassol using chartered ships to the Greek islands, and Alexandria to view the Pyramids, and Haifa to view Jerusalem.

Louis Cruise Lines Beginnings

Princesa Marissa was the first owned cruise ship when Costakis Loizou christened her into service on 1st June 1987. The vessel had been built as the twin funnelled passenger car ferry Finnhansa for Finn Lines by the Wartsila yard in Helsinki and was launched by the wife of the President of Finland on 1st December 1964. She was completed in March 1966 for the route from Helsinki to Nynashamn and Karlskrona in Sweden and Lubeck in Germany, later simplified to Helsinki to Nynashamn and Travemunde. She could accommodate 1,424 passengers and 306 cars, and after eleven years service she was sold to Birka Line of Finland in September 1977, and was renamed Prinsessan on 9th January 1978 for the Stockholm to Mariehamn route. She was purchased by Louis Cruise Lines for $3 million in late 1986 and cruised from Cyprus to Egypt and Israel for nineteen years. She was rebuilt in 1995 with enlarged cabins on the forward section of her fifth deck, receiving large picture windows and an improved casino. The 2005 and 2006 summer seasons saw her operate as a ferry from Piraeus to Rhodes and Limassol, with a short charter in July 2006 to German authorities to evacuate German, Canadian and other nationality citizens from war torn Lebanon. She was then laid up at Limassol on 11th August 2006 and remained there until she arrived for breaking up at Alang on 16th June 2008.

Princesa Cypria was the second Louis Cruise Lines’ ship when Costakis Loizou christened her on 1st July 1989 into service. She had been built at Riva Trigoso near Genoa as the twin screw DFDS passenger and car ferry Prinsesse Margrethe, and was launched almost complete on 5th August 1968. She took up her Copenhagen to Oslo service later that month with accommodation for 952 passengers and one hundred cars. She was rebuilt during 1975/76 with a new funnel and new aft superstructure and continued in DFDS service until sold to China in August, 1984 and was renamed Lu Jiang for the Hong Kong to China route. She was sold in 1988 to gold Coast Line S.A., Panama and renamed Asia angel, and then purchased by Louis Cruise Lines at the end of that year. She carried both cars and passengers on Louis cruises to the Holy Land with a total passenger capacity of 548 on a basis of two passengers per cabin until she was broken up in 2005. Princesa Amorosa was the third Louis Cruise Lines’ ship when Costakis Loizou christened her on 2nd July 1990 into service. She was the former twin screw Irish Sea ferry Scottish Coast owned by Coast Lines and launched on 21st August 1956 and completed on 1st March 1957 by the Belfast yard of Harland & Wolff Ltd. She was sold in 1969 to Hellenic Cruises owned by N. Kavounides and renamed Galaxias for twenty years of Greek island cruising. She was purchased by Louis Cruise Lines in late 1989 and her public rooms were refurbished but her wrought iron staircase balustrades from her British service were retained. She had accommodation for only 284 passengers on a basis of two passengers per cabin, but was laid up on the western quay wall of Limassol harbour in March 2000 when I saw her while on holiday there. She languished in lay up for a further four years before being broken up.

Princesa Victoria was the fourth Louis Cruise Lines’ ship when Costakis Loizou christened her on 15th January 1993 into service. She had been launched on 25^th January 1936 as the twin screw motor ship Dunnottar Castle for the Union Castle Mail Steamship Company intermediate service to Cape Town and completed six months later. She was sold in September 1958 to the Incres Steamship Company and renamed Victoria and rebuilt for Mediterranean cruising. She was then sold in November 1975 to Chandris of Greece for a short spell of Caribbean cruising before being refurbished to begin cruising from European and American ports in June 1976 as The Victoria. She retained her art Deco features in her public rooms and on her stairways in Louis Cruise Lines service for eleven years until she arrived at Alang for breaking up on 15th October 2004 as Victoria 1 after a magnificent 68 year career.

Princesa Victoria under Capt. Yannis Papadoulos had rescued all of the passengers from the burning Cypriot cruise ship Romantica on 4th October 1997. Romantica was owned by New Paradise Cruises of Limassol and had sailed from there with 223 Russian and 120 British passengers on a three day cruise to Port Said and Haifa but got no further than one hundred kilometres from shore when a serious blaze erupted in the engine room. Princesa Victoria was close by the stricken vessel and stood by until all passengers and her 182 crew members were taken onboard from the lifeboats, with the last few winched down from two helicopters scrambled from the British base of Akrotiri. Romantica was 58 years old at the time of her loss, having been built in 1939 as Huascaran for Hapag, and had sailed for Chandris of Greece for many years as Romanza on seven and 14 night cruises from Venice and Genoa to Egypt, Israel, Greece, Turkey and the red Sea. She had been purchased by Chandris in 1970 from Codegar Line as Aurelia, and sold in 1991 to New Paradise Cruises.

Louis Cruise Lines Expansion

The next stage in the cruising plan of Costakis Loizou was to purchase in 1994/95 two vessels, Sapphire and The Emerald, the latter being the former Santa Rosa of grace Line of 1958, for charter to Thomson Cruises of the U.K. Sapphire had been built at Genoa as the purpose built cruise ship Italia in 1967 and was taken on charter by Princess Cruises of Seattle at the end of that year for California based cruises to Mexico and later for Alaskan cruises. She was returned from charter to her Italian owners in 1973, but returned ten years later as ocean Princess, and was then sold in 1993 and renamed Sea Prince before purchase by Louis Cruise Lines in 1995 and renamed as Princesa Oceanica. She was renamed Sapphire by Louis Cruise Lines in 1996 for charter to Thomson, with The Emerald also on charter, having been purchased from regency Cruises as regent rainbow, and totally rebuilt out of all recognition from the American liner Santa Rosa. La Palma, the former French liner Ferdinand de Lesseps built in 1952 for Messageries Maritimes, was purchased at auction at Piraeus on 27th November, 1996, but did not sail for Louis Cruise Lines as she remained laid up at Eleusis Bay until eventually broken up at Alang in India at the end of 2002 after a fifty year career.

Louis Hellenic Cruises

The next key element to the expansion plan of Louis Cruise Lines came in 1999 with the investment of a large stake in Royal Olympic Cruises, the leader of the Greek cruising lines. It had a market share of 55% in the Eastern Mediterranean cruise market, and a 10% share in the total Mediterranean cruise market. However, this company was struggling with an ageing fleet, high labour costs and ever increasing foreign competition, and was dealt a fatal blow by the 9/11 tragedy in New York in 2001. Royal Olympic Cruise Lines had been formed in 1995 when the Potamianos family, founders of Epirotiki Line, regained control of Epirotiki Line and formed a joint venture with Sun Line owned by the Charalambos family of Greece. Louis Cruise Lines acquired a 70% stake of royal Olympic Cruise Holdings to give it a 40% stake in royal Olympic Cruise Lines. Costakis Loizou immediately invested $5 million in cash in order to shore up the cash flow of the royal Olympic Lines operation in December, 1999. Two high speed cruise ships were on order from the Blohm & Voss yard in Hamburg for completion in 2001/02 with cruising speeds of 27 knots and top speeds of 33 knots.

This pair of newly built cruise liners, Olympia voyager and Olympia Explorer, featured prominently in their American cruise brochure for the 2002/03 season where the greater distances between port destinations would suit the pair and had long been a stumbling block for Greek cruise ship operators. However, the pair struggled to obtain full capacity passenger loads, and they were sold off by December 2003. Royal Olympic Cruises struggled through the summer season of 2004 and finally collapsed in the autumn of that year. Costakis Loizou refused to take over the company, and decided instead to start his own new venture into the Greek cruise market with Louis Hellenic Cruises. This company acquired two other cruise liners from royal Olympic Cruises, Triton renamed Coral, and Seawing renamed Perla, at bargain prices. Epirotiki Line had been formed in 1830 by George Potamianos as a cargo and passenger shipping company in Piraeus, and the demise of its successor company marked the end of 170 years of maritime history

Niche Cruise Marketing Alliance (NCMA)

Louis Hellenic Cruises, based in Piraeus, began cruising to the Greek island and Cyprus from Piraeus by the Spring of 2005. it had also made inroads into the North American market in early 2007 by joining the Niche Cruise Marketing alliance (NCMA), an alliance of thirteen small and niche cruise operators. The members of the alliance were Fred. Olsen Cruises, American Cruise Lines, Galapagos Explorer Cruises, Majestic American Line, Norwegian Coastal Voyages, Orion Expedition Cruises, Peter Deilmann Cruises, Star Clippers, Voyages of Discovery, Imperial River Cruises, Riverbarge Excursions, and Pandaw Cruises operating in South East Asia. Membership of the NCMA gave penetration of the U.S. cruise market with access to several American tour operators, who then included the cruises in their package holidays, and in the case of Louis Hellenic Cruises, package holidays to Greece and Turkey with Louis Hellenic Cruises as part of the package.

The veteran Italian liner Ausonia, built in 1957 at Monfalcone for Adriatica Line service between Trieste and Beirut, had joined Louis Cruise Lines in 1998 and was chartered out to First Choice Cruises in 2000, and Calypso the former regent Jewel, built as the Italian car ferry Canguro Verde in 1957, had joined in 2000. Serenade, the former French cruise ship Mermoz, built in 1957 at St. Nazaire as Jean Mermoz for Fabre Line service from Marseille to West Africa, with accommodation for 757 passengers, joined Louis Cruise Lines in late 1999. Serenade was used in the 2001 summer season on short cruises from Malta to Italy and also as an accommodation ship for the g8 summit conference in Genoa. She was laid up for the 2002 season but returned to Eastern Mediterranean service in 2003.

in 2003, the former Nieuw Amsterdam of Holland America Line was purchased from American owners as Patriot, and chartered out to Thomson Cruises as Thomson Spirit. Sapphire and Ausonia had by then returned from their charters and entered Louis Cruise Lines own fleet, allowing it to sell their ageing vessels Princesa Amorosa, Princesa Cypria and Princesa Victoria for breaking up.

In 2004, Louis Cruise Lines acquired cruise ships from the struggling My Travel group, whose Sun Cruises brand had brought the introduction of mass market cruising into the U.K. one ship was sold, but two were then included in the Louis Cruise Lines fleet as Sunbird, the stylish former Song of America, and chartered out to Thomson as Thomson Destiny, and Carousel, the former equally stylish Song of Norway, renamed aquamarine in the Louis Cruise Lines fleet. Two years later, more cruise ships were added including Orient Queen, the former Starward built in 1968 for NCL, and Sea Diamond, the former Birka Line cruise ferry Birka Princess built in 1986. on the twentieth anniversary of Louis Cruise Lines in July 2006, its fleet numbered thirteen cruise ships with four chartered out to Thomson Cruises, two chartered out to Transocean Cruises of Germany including aquamarine renamed Arielle, and seven in its own fleet. The company had also set up a franchise agreement to allow operation of cruise ships in the Eastern Mediterranean on behalf of EasyCruise, owned by the well known Greek entrepreneur Stelios Hajiioannou.

Louis Cruise Lines Disaster

on 5th April 2007, the cruise ship Sea Diamond owned by Louis Cruise Lines ran aground on a volcanic reef inside the caldera of the Greek island of Santorini near Nea Kameni. She listed twelve degrees to starboard before her watertight doors were closed, and she was soon towed off the rocks and the list stabilised. However, due to the large amount of water ingress, she sank the next day at 0700 hours a few hundred metres from shore. She sank stern first with the tip of her bulbous bow in 203 feet of water and her stern in 590 feet of water. Due to the steep nature of the sides of the caldera and the deep water of the caldera, refloating was not an option. Unfortunately, two French citizens were lost and four injured from her large American and Canadian passenger complement during the evacuation. Sea Diamond was on her first cruise of the 2007 cruise summer season.

Sea Diamond was the former good looking Birka Line cruise ferry Birka Princess of 21,484 gt completed in April 1986 by the Vuosaari yard of the Valmet State owned company of Finland. She operated on the day route from Helsinki to Mariehamn in the Aland Islands for twenty years, with some longer Baltic cruises during the summer season. She was extensively refitted in 1999 by the Lloyd Werft yard with the fore superstructure extended and 62 new cabins added including a new deck of cabins above the bridge bringing her capacity up to 1,500 passengers. However, her longer cruises to Stockholm and Tallinn proved unsuccessful, and she was put up for sale and purchased by Louis Cruise Lines for €29.4 million. She was powered by four Wartsila Vasa diesel engines to give a service speed of 20 knots with a maximum of 22 knots.

A new outdoor swimming pool was added and the Sun Deck extended after her sale by the Turku repair yard at Naantali, and she was used by Louis Cruise Lines during the 2006 summer season. She was carrying 1,167 passengers on her last cruise from Piraeus, with her Captain and five Navigating officers later charged with causing a shipwreck through negligence, but were released pending the enquiry. it later emerged after a new hydrographic survey of the Santorini caldera was commissioned, that discrepancies of the charts on the vessel with the actual mapping of the area showed a difference of around sixteen metres in the depth of water. Louis Cruise Lines and her Master were fined €1.17 million on 19th June 2007 for causing marine pollution, and all of her fuel oil was pumped to the surface in June, 2009. a month after her loss, Louis Cruise Lines replaced Sea Diamond with Swedish cruise ferry Silja opera and renamed her Cristal.

Louis Cruise Lines Reorganisation

Cristal was the former Leeward of 25,611 grt that had entered service for Norwegian Cruise Line on 20th October 1995 on a four year charter from Silja Line as Sally Albatross, but had been built in 1980 as the passenger ferry Viking Saga for Viking Line. Two more cruise ships were short term chartered for the 2007 season to cover the loss of Sea Diamond in Oceanic II owned by Pullmantur Cruises of Spain, and ocean Countess of Monarch Classic Cruises renamed ruby for the remaining set of cruises at the end of the 2007 season. Serenade was used for the last time during the 2007 summer season and then scrapped in 2008. The 2008 cruise season saw Aegean Pearl, Aquamarine, The Calypso renamed from Calypso in 2005, Orient Queen, Cristal and Coral on Eastern and Western Mediterranean service, and Sapphire, The Emerald, Thomson Spirit and Thomson Destiny chartered out to Thomson Cruises, with Ausonia chartered out in the German cruise market. The Louis Hellenic Cruise brand was dropped at the start of the 2008 season, and the 2009 cruise season saw aquamarine, Orient Queen, Coral and Cristal on Eastern Mediterranean service, with Sapphire, The Emerald, Thomson Spirit and Thomson Destiny chartered out to Thomson Cruises.

The big event of October 2009 was the purchase of Norwegian Majesty from Norwegian Cruise Line as Norwegian Majesty and renamed as Louis Majesty. She had been completed in July 1992 as royal Majesty for Majesty Cruise Line by Kvaerner Masa Yards at Turku. She was lengthened in 1999 by the insertion of a 112 feet long mid-section that added 202 cabins, a second swimming pool, a second Dining room, an outdoor coffee bar, extra deck space, more lifts and a jogging circle around Promenade Deck. She was now of 40,876 grt and had accommodation for 1,790 passengers and was the largest vessel in the Louis fleet and its first ever ship to cruise all year round. She also introduced the first ‘a la carte’ restaurant on a company ship for gourmet passengers. The Palace Theatre had excellent vision from all seats, and her public rooms had impressively large wrap around windows.

in December 2009, a joint venture was set up with Kerala Tourism of South West India to launch a new cruise operation from Kochi to the Maldives and also to Sri Lanka. aquamarine, the former Song of Norway with accommodation for 1,200 passengers, was chosen as the cruise ship, but only made a small number of short cruises from India before being recalled to join Aegean Pearl in Spring 2010 for cruising to the Greek islands. ocean Countess was chartered out to Cruise & Maritime voyages of the U.K. in April, 2010. Cristal was sailing out of Piraeus during the 2010 season, and both Orient Queen and Coral were sailing from Marseille and Genoa on ten to fourteen night cruises. The Calypso was used in the winter season of 2010/11 for cruising in the red Sea.

The world financial downturn of late 2008 had now made serious inroads into the number of passengers taking cruise holidays. The new SOLAS regulations of 2010 saw the former Ansonia making an early departure for the breakers torches. She had been renamed ivory by Louis Cruise Lines in 2006, and Aegean Two in 2007 for charter to golden Sun Cruises, but then was laid up in 2008. Louis Cruise Lines had five cruise ships laid up at the start of the 2012 cruise season in Coral, Orient Queen, Sapphire, The Calypso and The Emerald. all five remained laid up and four were soon despatched to the scrapyards of Alang in India, with Orient Queen renamed as Louis aura. Cristal had been renamed Louis Cristal in 2011, and she sailed during the 2012 season with Louis Olympia, the former Thomson Destiny renamed in 2012. Louis Olympia had been built in 1982 as Song of America, and Louis Cristal had been built in 1980 as Viking Saga. Louis Majesty was renamed Thomson Majesty during 2012 and chartered out with Thomson Sprit, the former Nieuw Amsterdam of 1983, to Thomson Cruises of the U.K.

Louis Cruise Lines then made the decision to return to Greek island and Turkish port cruises for the 2014 cruise season. Some 81 Greek island cruises are offered to Mykonos, Santorini, Symi, Chios, Rhodes, Samos, Milos, Patmos and Crete as well to Bodrum, Cesme, Izmir and Kusadasi to visit Ephesus in Turkey. Ports of departure are Limassol, Piraeus, Lavrion and Istanbul. However, no cruises are offered to Egypt, Israel, Lebanon or Syria from Limassol due to the current serious political instability in the Middle East. The Louis cruise vessels in service in the Eastern Mediterranean are Louis Olympia, Louis aura, the former Orient Queen built as Starward in 1968 for NCL, and Louis Cristal. Louis Olympia and Louis Cristal are stylish cruise ships with excellent facilities, and the twin funnelled Louis aura is now 47 years old but still boasts an excellent Dining room, Lido Buffet, Show Lounge, discotheque, casino, swimming pool, fitness centre, beauty salon, writing room and card room, library, shops and four lifts. This trio wear the white funnel of Louis Cruise Lines with a red central sun symbol above a dark blue ‘L’ with a black top, and together have a passenger complement of a maximum of 3,250 passengers on a two per cabin basis.

Celestyal Cruises

Louis Cruise Lines has now returned to its core businesses including cruising to the Greek islands and Turkey under the style of ‘Celestyal Cruises’, the name that it first used three decades ago as a subsidiary of Louis Cruise Lines. The first owned cruise ship had been purchased in late 1986, and entered service as Princess Marissa on 1st June 1987. The name pertains to the stars and the heavens, with the company expanding its portfolio to give passengers the real Greek experience when visiting Chios, Ios, Kos, Milos, Samos, Symi and Syros. Greek navigators used celestial navigation from the third century BC, using the ‘Little Bear’ group of stars in the Ursa Major constellation. Today, Costakis Loizou still resides in Cyprus and controls over five thousand employees of the Louis travel and cruise empire. Costakis is married to Yianna Eliades, and both of their children, Louis and Marissa, work in the company as Executive Directors.

The holding company of Louis Cruise Lines is Louis Plc, which in addition to cruise ships owns or manages eighteen big hotels on Cyprus, Crete, Corfu, Zakynthos, Mykonos and Rhodes. The Hilton Cyprus Hotel in Nicosia is managed for the Cyprus Tourism Development Company Plc. Louis Plc was incorporated in Nicosia on 31st December 1998 as a private company controlling Louis Cruise Lines with the objective of acquiring all of the equity of the ship owning and other shipping related activities of the group. Louis Plc was floated on the Cyprus Stock Exchange in August, 1999 by the issue of 23.75 million new shares.

Postscript

As well as Louis Cruise Lines, Cyprus has a dozen large international ship management companies such as Ahrenkiel of Germany, Amer Ship Management, Bernard Schulte Ship Management, Columbia Ship Management, Interorient Navigation, Marlow Navigation, and Reederei ‘Nord’ Klaus E. Oldendorff. The current Cyprus ship register has 1,100 ships registered of over 21 million gross registered tonnes. The Greek Cypriot part of the island joined the European Union (EU) on 1st May 2004, and there are renewed reconciliation talks between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish community. However, there are significant obstacles to the achievement of a lasting settlement for the island of Cyprus.

On a brighter note, some eighty calls by international cruise ships are scheduled at Limassol and Larnaca during 2015, carrying one hundred thousand passengers to visit the major attractions of Cyprus. The pine clad slopes and waterfalls of the Troodos mountains, and the preserved roman villas and amphitheatre at Kourion near Limassol are two of my favourite attractions on this beautiful island.