The Importance of the Centrality of Ports for Passenger Transport in the Adriatic-Ionian Basin

The European port system must continue to play a strategic role considering three different aspects: economic, geopolitical and logistical. Several parameters can be considered in order to improve the definition of these transport nodes and among these the study of centrality is of fundamental importance. This study focuses on the analysis of the network of passenger transport services within the Adriatic-Ionian basin that are part of the TEN-T network. To these ports (both core and comprehensive) was added Durres, which has the characteristics of a major port in the Adriatic basin, as well as being the main port in the Southern Adriatic, although not belonging to the EU context. The study was conducted by monitoring the systemic passenger transhipment services and initially evaluating the Origin-Destination matrix and for each pair of values the average weekly number of connecting services in the year 2023, extrapolating some considerations in the most critical months. Through the calculation of the centrality parameters (Ci degree and Si force centrality), a partial correlation with seasonality emerged. Specifically for 2023, it emerged that the value of Ci defines Igoumenitsa as the most central port in the basin for all months considered. The Croatian and Albanian ports are less significant on a basin scale. Furthermore, the assessment of Si places Igoumenitsa, Bari and Ancona as the ports with the most connections. In the Croatian ports, a more marked seasonality emerges. In particular, it emerges that Croatian ports are more interested in tourism, which could mean that the Italy-Greece and Italy-Albania connections are also connections made for reasons unrelated to summer tourism. These results lay the foundations for actions and strategies to improve maritime transport services and optimise passenger services at certain times of the year.