The MedCruise Association kicked off its 62nd General Assembly on Tuesday in Corfu Greece.

The  association of ports represents community and cooperation, just like the island of Corfu, said Galataport’s Figen Ayan, president of MedCruise. “We come together because we want to fundamentally learn from one another and increase (passenger and crew counts).

The General Assembly includes hundreds of industry stakeholders ranging from MedCruise port members from Haifa to Gibraltar to cruise line executives and a group of media.

Among the challenges on the dicussion docket for the next few days are environmental sustainability, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, best practices for cruise calls and more. Attendees can look forward to speed networking sessions as well as panel discussions.

Corfu expects some 380 calls and 800,000 passenger this year, said Aris Batsoulis or the Corfu Port Authority.

“We can host five to six ships at once, but now it’s about extending the season instead of having five or six vessels on the same day,” added Maria Desylla-Kapodistria, mayor of Corfu.