Taxi drivers hold the country hostage

Greek tourism and cruise tourism have taken a huge blow due to the strike of taxi drivers who have caused chaos across the country.

The suffering of citizens as well as tourists is unprecedented, with airports and sea ports blocked off with a "yellow” cordon.

After yesterday’s incident with the cruise ship carrying 4.500 tourists which ultimately failed to dock at Heraklion port, two cruise ships scheduled to dock in Piraeus port today, carrying around 5000 passengers, ended up changing course.

The cruise ships were the MSC Harmony, carrying 2300 passengers, which was redirected to Nafplio, and Splendour of the Seas, carrying 1.997 passengers which docked in Chania since it could not approach Heraklion, Crete. Celebration, bearing a Portuguese flag, left Rhodes, stopped normally at Piraeus and then left for Santorini, bearing 1500 passengers, while Celebrity Solstice can be found docked at Chania, carrying 3.136 passengers.

Also, cruise ships Ruby Princess and Voyager of the Seas, carrying a total of 7000 passengers, changed their itineraries and did not approach Piraeus on Monday. Passengers of Louis Cruise Lines ships Majesty and Crystal suffered delays of many hours during boarding and debarkation.

Due to the protests of taxi drivers, planned tours in museums and archaeological sites were also cancelled, while a large number of tourists suffered delays in reaching the airport, since they had to walk to the Piraeus railway station, while some missed or nearly missed their flights.

Amid the high season, taxi drivers decided to prolong their strikes until Thursday at 5am, while unionists also propose that the strike becomes longer-term, lasting until Friday.