By
Rebecca Gibson |
The Costa Group and its parent organisation Carnival Corporation have pledged to almost double the number of Italian crew members working on its ships by hiring around 4,500 Italians over the next five years.
Costa Group and Carnival Corporation are one of the main employers of Italian sailors and make a significant contribution to the Italian economy through partnerships with local suppliers. In 2016, the corporation spent around €2 billion in Italy.
The Costa Group – which includes Italian brand Costa Cruises, German brand AIDA Cruises and Costa Asia – currently has the largest fleet of Italian-flagged cruise ships (27). Last year, ships from the Costa Group made 1,000 calls in Italian ports, bringing around 2.6 million passengers to the country.
Numbers are expected to increase further in 2017 when AIDA Cruises’ new AIDAperla starts her weekly calls in Civitavecchia/Rome and Livorno this summer. The newbuild will make a total of 60 stopovers in Italy this year.
“Carnival Corporation is one of the biggest foreign investors in Italy, which is a strategic country for our growth,” said Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation, which includes 10 global cruise line brands that carry nearly 12 million guests a year. “Since 1990 we have built 68 ships in Italian shipyards for various brands in our group of 10 world-leading cruise lines, and another 10 vessels are currently on order or under construction, for a total investment of about €32 billion.”