By Charles Charalambous
THE CYPRUS Ports Authority (CPA) has forced Holland America Lines (HAL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, the
largest cruise operator in the world, to remove the port of Famagusta in the occupied areas as one of the ports of call on its 2010 European cruise schedule.
Following the publication of articles in the Sunday Mail, Phileleftheros and Politis, which highlighted the inclusion of Famagusta on the cruise operator's
list of ports of call, the CPA intervened through the Association of Mediterranean Cruise Ports (MedCruise), which obliged HAL to change its itineraries.
HAL announced two weeks ago that its 2010 season would include three cruises in September calling at Famagusta, under the headings '29-day Ancient Lands
Discovery', '14-day Ancient Splendours' and '28-day Ancient Lands & Black Sea'. The company has now decided to replace Famagusta with
Larnaca.
The move came after the CPA - which has been a member of MedCruise since its creation in 1996, and has a seat on its board of directors - pointed out that
HAL's action in listing Famagusta broke a law passed by the Cyprus government in October 1974, declaring the ports of Famagusta, Kyrenia and Karavostasi
closed to all craft.
It was finally established that the company had been misinformed by third parties, resulting in its erroneous actions. HAL has issued an apology to both
MedCruise and the CPA, and has made a commitment to correct its error.
HAL, which describes itself as "the highest-rated premium cruise line in the world", was founded in 1873 as a shipping and passenger line. It
switched to running cruise ships full time in 1971, and in 1989 became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, comprising 11 cruise brands -
including British brands P&O Cruises and Cunard Line - operating out of five countries. Today, the cruise line operates 14 ships to 320 ports in more than
100 "countries, territories or dependencies" and carries nearly 700,000 cruise passengers a year.
