Around 50% of the passengers on its ships are Spanish, and Barcelona, ??its second nerve center in the Mediterranean, where not only does it have its own terminal in the port, but two years ago it opened a customer service center in the Mapfre tower with 300 workers.
Costa Cruises, integrated into Carnival Corporation for 20 years, contributes around 15% of the group’s turnover, which in the last financial year, ended February 2023, reached 13,627 million euros. The sector expects a strong recovery this year to 31 million cruise passengers, which will easily exceed that of 2019, of 20.7 million passengers.
Did you expect this recovery?
It’s not been a surprise. We knew of the hunger to travel again, to feel and to enjoy. That is why passenger shipping companies exist: to make the trip a great pleasure.
Are these post-2020 cruise passengers the same? What has changed?
After what we have experienced in these strange years, there have been changes, of course. Now many passengers don’t just want to travel, but are looking to experience something special in first person. The average age of cruise passengers has fallen in general. Passengers are increasingly demanding. They want their time on board to be more entertaining and at the same time on land they want to live more immersive experiences. The idea of ??a linear cruise, in which everyone is doing the same thing and has a limited offer of services and activities, is history.
And how have you managed to attract this new audience?
Well, on the one hand, we can give a lot of flexibility in price and offer quality travel. When comparing a vacation with us or at a resort, we win. On the other hand, we are advancing as society does: we are closer to our clients, we speak to them in a clear language and they know exactly what they are going to find.
You have spent several years opening the Asian market for your company. Is it the great tourist promise?
I chaired Costa Asia from 2017 to 2020. I learned about and verified the enormous potential of this market. Now we have started there again after a three-year hiatus with departures from South Korea and Taiwan.
How do you feel in Spain?
Very comfortable. It is not only the enormous number of stopovers that we make in Spanish ports throughout the year, whether they are boarding for some or stopover for others. The Spanish public reaches 50% or even more of the total passage of our boats in many departures. Here we have opted to have a powerful commercial structure and a couple of years ago we opened a Customer Hub in Barcelona. 300 people of more than 20 nationalities work there, serving various markets from two floors of the Mapfre tower.
It cannot be overlooked that there is not a very positive image of your sector.
It would be easy to answer by talking about the benefits that a sector like this brings to each port where it calls, and the cruise companies have made tremendous efforts to improve the environment. In many cases, much, much more than other sectors. I am talking about sustainability and avoiding leaving a mark: we are fixated on recycling, adapting our schedules to save as much as possible and optimize consumption, and then there is the myth of water…
What happens to the water?
We are pointed out as large consumers of water from the ports where we operate and I understand that it is worrying in areas where there is drought, but it is not like that. Our boats are self-sufficient. The ships of our shipping company that call at Barcelona, ??for example, have completely autonomous water management, both in the management of gray or black water and in the desalination of water for use and consumption on board. What’s more, if they ask us, a ship like the Costa Toscana could donate 2,000 tons of drinking water during a stopover to the port that requests it.
What do you think of the electrification plan for the docks?
It is something that these facilities have to do compulsorily and have to speed up the process. The bulk of our ships are ready to be plugged into local electrical networks and thus not use combustion engines during stopovers. They are less than sailing, although those engines have to be running for the ship to keep running. Even so, we are already doing our homework, not only getting the ships ready to receive electricity but also changing the fuels we use.
We are talking about LNG or Liquefied Natural Gas, which is still a transition fuel…
TRUE. Our last two ships run 100% on LNG, which compared to marine fuel oil greatly lowers emissions. There are many advances just around the corner: synthetic natural gas, bioLNG, fuel cells and increasingly powerful batteries. We need dialogue with all levels to speed up this process. Do not prohibit, do not veto, but row together so that it arrives even sooner. Shipping companies cannot do everything alone.
