It is certainly a fact that the navigation system in Greece has developed a lot over the last years with the construction of new vessels and the improvement of services. The role of the Greek ferries is crucial when it comes to tourism as they have to serve the 20 millions of tourists that visit Greece every year.

However, Greek ferries do not only have to serve tourists but the permanent inhabitants of the islands, too, that sometimes find it difficult to move around Greece due to various facts, such as bad ferry transportation, insufficient schedules or extreme weather conditions. Things are worse for the inhabitants of the small islands. That is why Greek ferries and ferry companies are doing hard efforts to connect these small and remote islands to bigger islands as well as to Athens or other major Greek towns.

Out of the 220 inhabited Greek islands, only 20 or 30 of them have developed a good transportation connection and these islands are usually the ones that have developed tourism, too. However, what happens with the remaining islands that have only few inhabitants?

A big effort has started from the government and the nautical companies so that Greek ferries will expand their schedules to include remote Greek islands. As summer approaches, there is evidently an urgent need to ameliorate the schedule of the Greek ferries.

Many companies have responded to this effort, such as Dodecanisos Seaways, which has managed to connect most Dodecanese islands to each other in such a way that schedules are held every day on return. Another ferry company worth to mention is Blue Star Ferries, which announced new schedules to connect Piraeus and some popular islands, such as Paros, Naxos and Rhodes, to isolate islands of the Aegean, such as Astypalea, Nisyros, Tilos and Kastelorizo. These schedules are performed by modern Greek ferries every one or two days.

This effort of the Greek ferries is truly innovative in view of the tourism period that starts in a few days, in early May. This way, small and isolate islands can also get benefited by tourism and visitors can enjoy their special vibe without getting tired of traveling, saving time and money. An additional advantage is the Greek ferries will give them not only a quick but also a comfortable trip and they will have the opportunity to island hop in many Greek destinations.