Costa Concordia – A Load of Scrap?

Since the well documented Costa Concordia disaster in January 2012, one question has been asked to me as a Cruise Sales Consultant time and time again,

‘Has it affected the industry?’

Now for the first few months my  answer was initially yes, it had affected bookings as a whole. Of course Costa & Carnival would bear the brunt of the financial impact due to the ownership & branding of the ship…………..however something strange happened………..

Months later my answer to the fore-mentioned question changed. I saw the amount of Costa bookings increasing! Of course you could argue that this is down to some fantastically low prices, or reductions in costs of Drinks Packages, or other similar coincidental price plummets.

But the cold fact of the matter is, any press is good press. All that the news companies and tabloids did was bring Costa Cruises’ name into the spotlight 100% more than it was prior to the disaster. Something Travel Agents nation wide were paying to do every day! It was free TV advertising at its highest level.

Now, almost two years later, the interest in Costa Cruises is much more than before. If guests want a quick, easy, and above all safe cruise around the Mediterranean, at a cost that won’t make your credit card dissolve, they need look no further! You can genuinely pick up a week long cruise including gratuities and drinks for between £500 and £600 per person if you time it right. That is phenomenal value which ever way you look at it.

But I digress, something dawned on me the other day that made me wonder…….

They plan on scrapping the ship at some point next year I believe. But……. what if they were to re-float, re-build and re-brand the ship? I mean you are talking about a multi-million pound piece of machinery, a incredible feat of engineering, and potentially a real talking point within the industry. Seems a shame to break it all up and scrap all the man hours that were spent building it.

Yes it would be a controversial beginning, but she would be born from a controversial end. For me its fitting. Indeed it was a terrible tragedy in which numerous lives were lost, and I must express my sadness to all the people affected,  but would re-floating the ship be a tribute to those lost or a dis-tasteful effort to recoup sales figures? You tell me.

Some would argue that its best left forgotten,  but personally i’m not so sure, after all, everybody loves a good sequel. Costa NeoConcordia? Carnival Concord? Who knows? All I can say is that it would certainly be an interesting story!

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But for now i’ll say thanks for reading and Ciao for now!