Costa Crociere begins its program of cruises in the Arabian Gulf out of Dubai, with deployment of two of the Group's ships, the Costa Classica and AIDAcara, throughout winter 2006/2007: a total of 25 calls and 63,000 passengers forecast. In winter 2007/2008 Costa Crociere will increase its presence in the UAE port, positioning the Costa Romantica and Costa Europa as well as the AIDAcara: this will mean a total of 39 stopovers and 103,000 passenger movements.
Dubai - The Costa Classica has made her debut in the port of Dubai. Costa Crociere SpA, the Italian company and the market leader in Europe and South America, has thus begun its program of cruises in the Arabian Gulf with departures from Dubai, a first for the global cruise industry.
Earlier, Costa Crociere SpA Chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi met on board the ship with Paolo Dionisi, Italian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and some of the main local authorities, as well as representatives of the international business community in Dubai.
The new cruises out of Dubai will be offered throughout the 2006/2007 winter season, on two ships belonging to the Italian group: the Costa Classica (53,000 gross tonnage and total guest capacity of 1680) operated by the Italian brand Costa Crociere, and the AIDAcara (38,000 gross tonnage and total guest capacity of 1339), which is a fleet member belonging to AidaCruises, a German subsidiary of the Costa group.
The 7-day itinerary includes two nights in Dubai and one-day stopovers in the ports of Muscat, Fujairah (United Arab Emirates), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) and Bahrain. The Costa Classica will be leaving from Dubai every Saturday, and the AIDAcara every Friday. In all, the two ships will make a total of 25 calls, 17 on the Costa Classica (from December 22, 2006 to April 15, 2007), and 8 on the AIDAcara (from December 21, 2006 through February 10, 2007).
This works out to 63,000 passengers handled, comprising around 44,000 on the Costa Classica and 19,000 on the AIDAcara. The majority of Guests on both vessels will be Europeans: solely Germans and Austrians on board the AIDAcara, and mainly Italian, German, Austrian, French, English and Spanish on the Costa Classica. They will fly to Dubai from Europe on charter flights from Europe and then embark in the UAE port.
"We welcome Costa Crociere's decision and hope that it will be a shot in the arm for the regional cruise industry. We will continue to devote our efforts to further promote this most-promising sector of the tourism industry. Costa Crociere's decision reconfirms the potential of Dubai as the regional cruise industry hub. We are delighted with their decision and assure of our whole hearted cooperation and support to make the initiative successful. We are confident that this will help expand the cruise tourism industry in the region and stimulate other cruise operators to use the Emirate as a cruise hub," said Khalid A. Bin Sulayem, Director General of Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).
"It is a great pleasure for me, as Italian Ambassador to the UAE - commented Mr. Paolo Dionisi, Italian Ambassador to the UAE - to welcome the inauguration of the cruise operation in the Gulf of Costa Crociere, the European leader and one of the major cruise Group worldwide. The Italian flag will show in the Gulf the Italian excellence as a true symbol of exclusive lifestyle and I am sure that Costa Crociere is the best testimonial for this. I wish also to express my deep appreciation to Costa Crociere for its significant contribution to promote the United Arab Emirates and the Arabian Gulf as a wonderful destination for Italian and European tourists and my sincere gratitude to the Authorities of the United Arab Emirates for their cooperation and great commitment to make this program be possible. I strongly believe that Costa Ships will bring people and cultures of Italy, Europe, the United Arab Emirates and the Arabian Gulf much nearer".
Awadh Seghayer Al Ketbi, Acting Manager Dubai Cruise Terminal, said: "Cruise industry plays a crucial role in the overall growth and development of the tourism industry in Dubai and the region. We realized its importance long ago and created the infrastructure and services that were needed to tap its potential."
"We're delighted," commented Costa Crociere SpA Chairman & CEO, "to begin this new cruise program out of Dubai - a global first which establishes our place as a truly international operator on the world stage. I wish to thank the authorities in Dubai and in the other countries in the region where we have ports of call for their cooperation and support. The new itineraries in the Arabian Gulf are already proving very popular with our Guests, and to this end we intend to significantly increase the number of cruises here in winter 2007/2008."
In fact, the Costa group plans to deploy three cruise ships in Dubai for the 2007/2008 winter season; in addition to the AIDA brand vessel AIDAcara, the Costa Crociere brand will be present with the Costa Romantica (53,000 gross tonnage and total guest capacity of 1697) and the Costa Europa (55,000 gross tonnage and total guest capacity of 1830). There will be a total of 39 calls (15 on the Costa Romantica, 10 on the Costa Europa and 14 on the AIDAcara) with 103,000 passenger movements (40,000 on the Costa Romantica, 30,000 on the Costa Europa and 33,000 on the AIDAcara).
The three ships will be deployed on the same itinerary already marketed by Costa in winter 2006/2007. The AIDAcara will extend her season from December 6, 2007 through March 8, 2008, with departures from Dubai every Friday; the Costa Romantica will set sail on Saturdays from December 21, 2007 to March 30, 2008; and the Costa Europa will depart every Sunday from December 22, 2007 through February 25, 2008.
The arrival of Costa Crociere will help promote the countries of the Arabian Gulf in Europe. All the Costa cruises using Dubai as a homeport will include guided excursions in every port of call, giving Guests the chance to visit some of the best local tourist attractions - places of natural beauty or historical and cultural interest. The program features desert adventures, trips to some of the most exclusive beaches in the Arabian Gulf, visits to the finest mosques, historical buildings and museums, tours of the cities and their typical markets, and dolphin-watching cruises.
Also, thanks to the arrival of Costa, cruise traffic in the port of Dubai will enjoy substantial growth in terms both of calls and of passengers handled. In 2005 the UAE port was used as a stopover on cruises 13 times, with 13,000 passenger movements. 20,000 passengers are forecast by the end of 2006, while Dubai will be used as a port of call on at least 50 cruises during the 2006/2007 winter season (October 2006-April 2007).
-Ends-
Issued on behalf of "Costa Cruises" by Landmark PR & Event Management.
About Costa Conciere
Costa Crociere is an Italian cruise company and the market leader in Europe and South America. In 2006 Costa carried a total of 878,000 cruise Guests and this figure is expected to hit the one million mark in 2007. Its fleet, Europe's largest and most advanced, has a total of 11 ships in service and 4 under construction. By 2010 the Costa fleet will be 15 strong with total Guest capacity of over 30,700.
All of the vessels fly the Italian flag and are deployed in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Caribbean, South America, the United Arab Emirates, the Arabian Gulf and the Far East.Costa Crociere has been certified by RINA (Italian Shipping Register) with the BEST4, an integrated system of voluntary certification of corporate compliance with the highest standards governing social accountability (SA 8000, issued in 2001), environment (UNI EN ISO 14001, 1996), safety (OHSAS 18001, 1999) and quality (UNI EN ISO 9001, 2000). Costa Crociere is also an official partner of the WWF for the protection of the marine ecoregions of the Mediterranean, the Greater Antilles and Brazil. Costa Crociere SpA also operates the brand AIDA Cruises, which is the number one cruise company for the German market with 4 ships in service and 4 under construction. Costa Crociere SpA is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc, the world's largest cruise operator.
For further information please contact:
Costa Conciere SpA
VP Corprate Communication
Fabrizia Greppi
Tel.: +39 010 5483903
Fax: +39 010 5483437
Press Officer
Davide Barbano
Tel.: +39 010 5483523
Mobile: +39 334 6525216
Email: barbano@costa.it
Anusyia Nathan
Account Manager
Tel.: +971 4 3912142
Email: anusyia@landmarkpr.ae
© Press Release 2006
