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The Costa Fascinosa (114,500 gross tonnage and a maximum capacity of 3,800 passengers), the new flagship of the fleet of Costa Cruises has been delivered to Costa by Fincantieri in Venice. Officially handed over by the builder earlier today at the Venice Passenger Terminal, together with her sister ship Costa Favolosa, she is the largest Italian-flagged cruise ship afloat. The delivery ceremony was attended by Italy’s Minister of Tourism Piero Gnudi and his daughter Elsa was the godmother of the new flagship. Costa Cruises and Fincantieri have made a joint donation to the Papa Giovanni XXIII Community by Father Oreste Benzi, for the “Rainbow Project”, which offers help to children in need worldwide and is supported by Elsa Gnudi. The total investment made by Costa Cruises for the Costa Fascinosa (www.costacruise.com/fascinosa) is worth 510 million euros. The construction of the ship in Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard involved the labor of around 3,000 yard workers plus a further 7,000 people employed by about 500 contracted suppliers, most of which are Italian firms. Since 1990 Costa Cruises has invested 5.8 billion euros in work at Italy’s Fincantieri, T. Mariotti and San Giorgio del Porto shipyards, with a total of 14 ships built or on order, in addition to the refurbishment of other fleet members already in service. The handover of the Costa Fascinosa takes places about two months after the delivery of the Costa neoRomantica, the result of the 90 million euro refurbishment of the Costa Romantica carried out at the San Giorgio del Porto shipyard in Genoa. After the Costa Fascinosa, the Costa Cruises fleet expansion program will continue, again at Fincantieri’s Marghera yard, with the construction of a new 132,500-tonner due for delivery in October 2014 and accommodating up to 4,928 Guests, thus making her the largest Italian cruise ship.
"The delivery of the Costa Fascinosa is an important stepping stone on our Company’s road to recovery. It is confirmation that the long-term fundamentals of our business remain strong, since it’s an investment worth over 500 million euros, which comes just two months after the 90 million euro revamp of the Costa neoRomantica. After the recent incident, despite the economic downturn and the impact on consumption, Costa has bounced back and booking volumes are back to the same levels recorded this time last year, ahead of our own expectations. Our share of the market in the main countries where we operate has not been affected: we were, are and will remain number 1 in Europe. This is thanks to the quality of our product, the strength of our brand, which comes with a guarantee of over 60 years of experience, and our unfailing customer loyalty. We will continue to work for our customers, offering them even better and safer cruises on fantastic ships like the Costa Fascinosa," commented Costa Crociere S.p.A Chairman & CEO Pier Luigi Foschi. "Costa Fascinosa is the living proof of the progress and the results achieved by two great Italian industries jointly contributing to spread a positive image of Made in Italy around the world despite the difficulties," said Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri. "We are most pleased to have contributed to the success of Costa, an Italian company which proudly flies the Italian flag and which has grown to become the leader in its sector in Europe, step-in-step with Fincantieri as we strengthened our leadership.Cooperation between our companies shows that the Italian industry is able to build network and reach unrivalled levels of quality. This is the only way to ensure future for such strategic sectors as shipbuilding and tourism." The Costa Fascinosa and all the other Costa fleet members will raise the already high safety standards by introducing 7 new safety initiatives that the Company announced at the ceremony marking delivery of the new flagship: strengthening Guest emergency training procedures beyond regulatory requirements; strengthening invitation procedure for Guests who missed emergency and safety on-board training; new section “Noi per Voi" (“Here for You”) on Costa Cruises’ website to give even more transparency to safety procedures on board; launch of the new real-time route-monitoring system “High Tech Safety Monitoring System" (HT-SMS); officers training on the new bridge-management model; formal sharing of the ship navigation plan; strengthening policies that regulate access to the bridge.
The Costa Fascinosa sets sail from Venice on her vernissage cruise on May 6, bound for Slovenia, Trieste and Croatia, and will be hosting the 19th edition of the “Champions of the Sea”, an annual event celebrating the best Travel Agents partnering Costa Cruises worldwide. Then, on May 11, the latest addition to the fleet will depart from Venice once again, this time on her inaugural cruise – a 10-day itinerary taking in Greece, Israel and Turkey. For the rest of the 2012 summer season, until the end of November, the Costa Fascinosa will be operating on 7-day cruises from Venice and Bari to Greece and Croatia. In winter 2012/13 the flagship will be in South America on cruises in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, while in summer 2013 she will be back in the Eastern Mediterranean on 1-week vacations to Greece and Turkey with departures from Venice and Bari. On the occasion of the delivery of the new flagship, Costa Cruises also presented its itineraries for 2013, with more than 600 cruises all over the world, already available for booking.
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