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Costa Group generating Euros 12.6bn and over 63,000 jobs in Europe

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Costa Smeralda, one of Costa's new build LNG propelled ships
Cruise business generated by Costa Group has had a significant impact on the Italian and wider European economy this year reflected in its 3.2m guests spend generating a total financial impact of €12.6bn and creating over 63,000 full-time jobs in 2018.

The figures come from a study conducted by Deloitte & Touche, the University of Genoa and the University of Hamburg and were presented at the Genoa Boat Show, with involvement from Italian officials including the Mayor of Genoa, Marco Bucci, the Mayor of Savona, Ilaria Caprioglio and the president of Confitarma, Mario Mattioli.

New build fleet expansion

Shipbuilding for Costa Group in Europe (AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises) has generated around €4.5bn and over 20,000 jobs, this follows plans to expand its fleet delivering five more new ships by 2023, plus two which are already in service.

Financial footprint

Guest spend on average amounted to €74.60 per passenger in each European port visited by the company's ships. The report also showed from customer feedback that 60% of guests said they wanted to return to the visited destinations.

‘Every euro spent by our Group, by our guests or by our crew has a multiplying effect,’ said Neil Palomba, president of Costa Cruises. ‘The aim of our study is to quantify this value, focusing on Europe and Italy, where we have an established historical presence, so that more informed development programs can be built with the communities of our ports of call’, he added.

Added value

Italy and Germany are the two European countries where the Costa Group, which includes Costa Cruises and AIDA cruises brands generate the greatest value. Italy in particular, which has been the company's home for over 70 years, benefits from an economic impact of €3.5b, creating around 17,000 jobs.

Liguria has received an economic boost of €511m from Costa Group, creating over 3,200 jobs, including 1,100 directly. In addition the company's head office is located in Genoa, Liguria which has three home ports (Savona, Genoa and La Spezia) where Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises ships regularly call bringing around 1.2m passengers in 2019.