With more than 5,000 Italians now working at sea across the company, this nearly doubles the number of Italian crew at Carnival Corp. & plc.
The Costa Group—Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises and Costa Asia—carried about 3m passengers in 2016, an increase of 13% from 2015. Thanks to the addition of AIDAperla, the company expects a further increase in 2017.
AIDAperla will sail in the Mediterranean, calling at Civitavecchia (Rome) and Livorno every week, with a total of 60 stopovers in Italy during 2017.
During the maiden visit to Genoa, the headquarters for Costa Cruises, company officials took the opportunity to stress Carnival Corp.'s contribution to Italy's economy.
Across its three brands the Costa Group fields about 76,000 berths on 27 vessels, the largest fleet of cruise ships flying the Italian flag.
'Carnival Corporation is one of the biggest foreign investors in Italy, which is a strategic country for our growth,' said Arnold Donald, president and ceo, Carnival Corp. He noted that since 1990, the company has built 68 ships in Italian yards for various brands and another 10 are currently on order or under construction, for a total investment of about €32bn.
Costa Group and Carnival Corp. together are one of the main employers of Italian seafarers and make a significant contribution to the Italian economy through partnerships with local suppliers. In 2016, spending by Carnival Corp. in Italy totaled about €2bn.
Given the need for new crew members to man newbuilds, Costa Group and Carnival Corp. are looking into working with one or more of Italy's nautical institutes. Already there's a successful partnership with the Italian Merchant Marine Academy, both for deck and engine staff and the hotel side, with the recent opening of the Academy for Italian Cruise Hospitality in Arenzano.
In 2016, Costa Group ships made 1,000 calls at Italian ports, equivalent to passenger traffic of approximately 2.6m, representing more than half of the nearly 4m passengers carried by Carnival Corp. ships in Italy. Added to this figure is the contribution the Costa Group makes to Italy's air transport system, moving approximately 250,000 passengers through Italian airports with its 'fly + cruise' package.
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