Attica Group has decided — in an unusual move — to host tourists on land as well as carrying them on water.
Its €6.5m ($7.4m) acquisition of a three-star hotel on the Aegean island of Naxos is just the opening shot in a "targeted" expansion in the hospitality business.
With a fleet of 30 ships and a market capitalisation of about €235m, Attica is Greece's biggest ferry company.
However, it is revising its business strategy to cope with an onslaught of challenges that include a tourism slump amid the pandemic, soaring fuel costs and tighter environmental regulation, which poses particular problems for ageing passenger ship fleets in the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, its fuel costs soared by 75% year on year in the third quarter.
In its quarterly results, Attica said it is executing on a "strategic plan for sustainable growth in the post Covid-19 era".
As part of this review, it set up a fully owned subsidiary called Attica Blue Hospitality, which will buy and then upgrade and expand the 88-room Naxos Resort Beach Hotel.
Hotel ownership should set Attica apart from rivals such as Seajets and Minoan Lines, the company said, by allowing it to "cover a wider gamut of clients’ needs".
At the same time, it should strengthen its balance sheet through investments in maritime-related business sectors that offer "immediate synergies".
Attica operates the Superfast Ferries, Blue Star Ferries and Hellenic Seaways brands. Twenty of its ships are conventionally fuelled ro-ros.
