About 1,000 Olympic officials have been asked by Athens 2004 to relocate to rooms other than those they have already booked for the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games.
It seems that three out of a total seven cruise ships hired to offer more than 2,000 cabins to Olympic officials have been eliminated from the housing plans for the Games.
The ships are under auction in the United States and South Africa after creditors of their Greek operator Royal Olympia Cruises (ROC) ordered the ships to be sold. The three ships can carry around 1,000 passengers each.
Vassilis Niadas, Athens 2004 Games services general manager, who is also in charge of accommodation, told AFP “we have proposed to the Olympic family either to take cabins in the other cruisers hired or in hotels on land”.
He admitted that the relocation plan will shrink hotel space available to non-official visitors.
It’s not certain yet that the operators of the remaining cruisers planned to host members of the Olympic family will accept increasing the 30 per cent share available to officials, by limiting cabin capacity for ordinary visitors who normally pay higher prices.
Michalis Lambros, manager of Greek operator Majestic Cruises, told AFP, “we have offered the ship to Athens 2004 for the Games, but only at a reasonable price”.
