Costa neoRomantica is to offer 11 two-week cruises in the region between October 2016 and March 2017
By
Rebecca Gibson |
Costa Cruises has doubled the number of its Indian Ocean cruises for the winter 2016-2017 season.
Costa, which has exclusively provided regular cruises to the region since the end of 2006, will offer 11 voyages onboard Costa neoRomantica between 15 October 2016 and 4 March 2017.
Lasting 14 days, each voyage will start in Mauritius and head to the Seychelles Islands, where the ship will berth for two nights. From there, the ship will sail to Madagascar to allow guests to enjoy day calls in Nosy Be, Diego Suarez and Tamatave, before spending a full day and night at Réunion island. Guests will then spend a full day and night in Mauritius before concluding their cruise in Europe.
The extended itinerary programme is part of a new agreement between Costa, the Seychelles Ministry of Tourism and the Vanilla Islands Organisation. Together, the three organisations will promote tourism to the region and invest in improvements to port infrastructures, guest hospitality facilities, flight connections and shore excursion programmes.
“We are the only company proposing regular cruises to these unique islands of the Indian Ocean and offer our guests an exceptionally beautiful cruise experience” said Norbert Stiekema, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Costa. “Thanks to the partnership agreement reached with local authorities, our tourism offer to these destinations will continue to grow, and during the 2016-2017 winter season we plan on taking about 15,000 guests, most of them European, on cruises to the islands.”