Resilience in cruise tourism has been particularly important in recent years and especially after crises such as the financial crisis (2011–2013), in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021). The role of cruise ports is not limited only to the operation of the transport service, but also includes shaping their competitive position, as well as their ability to maintain and recover cruise demand in times of crisis, while contributing to the long-term sustainability of tourism. This study analyzes the resilience of passenger demand in eight Greek cruise ports during the period 2010–2024, examining the stability and recovery of passenger traffic through two composite indicators, the Project Management Index (PMI) and the Multimodal Access Index (MAI). Panel data were used with the passenger traffic as the dependent variable and the PMI and MAI as independent variables. The results show that multimodality plays the most important role for the resilience of cruise demand as it enhances the stability and recovery of cruise passenger demand while the pandemic had a negative impact. The contribution of the study lies in the quantitative mapping of the resilience of cruise ports, which is part of the framework of sustainable tourism development, offering useful tools for policy-making and strategic planning of cruise ports’ connectivity.
Georgia C. Papadopoulou (Fri,) studied this question.