"will costa survive?"

[G.M.T.]

First off....Costa has always been the lowest of the low of cruiselines. They stopped marketing to Americans years ago as all they received were complaints...The began to focus on italy and South America, offer kids for free and do whatever it took to fill the ships relying on the onboard spend ....which is quite large considering these ships are built for low staff, many passengers and cheap food. There were 3350 passengers onboard and 1000 staff......

 

They Will survive as regardless of the chaos of moving 4000 people off a ship you have a less then 1% mortality rate....which shows their evacuation procedures worked. While no death is ideal...realistically this number is quite low given the situation.

 

You will find that A) Carnival will distance itself from Costa making it clear they are their own company based in Genoa Italy....this has already started to happen....I have read this in several stories....Also Carnival has not issued any statements....everything is coming through Costa. You will find that B) They will praise the staff and coastguard for saving the passengers.....Always accentuate the positive They May C) Paint the COSTA C off the smokestack because every picture taken shows "Costa" and without it....people have short memories and get on to the next story. Airlines do this when they have a crash. And D) The details will be a controlled dribble where REAL information will be released on Friday afternoons when you have the LEAST amount of people reading the news....this is an old PR trick. Anytime you want something to be released but go unnoticed....Drop your stories on Friday at 3PM. They will either scuttle, rename, or sell this to another one of their lines with a new name....like Princess or Carnival.....Didn't the Carnival Splendour also have problems and was the sister to this one? so maybe not there!

 

Sadly, the people who are alive will have little or no recourse as these ships are registered in countries where lawsuits are difficult and your conditions of carrige often allows the cruiselines to choose their own mediators. Cruises are a TERRIBLY unregulated business.....and our Governments Really need to have a close look at it.

 

Regardless.....My heart goes out to the people killed and to those who survived...I am glad you are safe and sound. ERF

 

Costa still caters for the North American market (Costa USA with it's onw web site), the Costa Atlantica is currently sailing out of Miami for a winter season in the Caribbean.

 

Costa operates worldwide and is the fore runner in a lot of markets. Costa operates in:

 

Meditteranean

Baltic

Northern Europe

Caribbean

South America

Far East

Dubai

Indian Ocean

India

Red Sea

World cruises

Australia New Zealand

 

Carnical have issued press releases.

 

Ron

[Boy Blue]

Costa is the best cruise line I have travelled with.

 

I am sailing on Friday the 13th of April on the Favolosa and I am looking forward to it.

 

I have no worries at all.

[guernseyguy]

It's happened in the airline industry. The Concorde, PanAm.

 

Pan Am was on its last legs - and Concorde was withdrawn because Air France lost money on it and pressured Airbus into withdrawing technical support (even though Air France's maintenance techniques may have played a part in the crash). Air France, however, survived.

 

There's an awful lot of rushing to judgement on an accident where 99.6% survived.....

 

If systemically Costa could be shown to be running an unsafe operation, then speculation over its future might be appropriate - but since all we know so far seems to point to errors by individuals, I think we're getting more than a little ahead of ourselves.....and encouraging the Carnival bashers to trot out their old tropes.....

[Mrs. Wilburforce]

Those are my thoughts exactly. That would mean that AA, Air France, KLM and many other airlines should not be in business today, however they are still in the air flying with their original brand names....

 

With respect, I'm not certain the airline industry and cruise industry can be comparable as business models. Airlines provide necessary transportation and cruise ships are floating resorts. The more correct comparison would be, in the case of airlines, other forms of transportation or the competing carriers.

With cruise ships, I would consider a business equivalent such as resorts or competing carriers.

Cruise ships are not primary transportation providers. Life, for most people, would not be disrupted without them. Airlines are essential modes of transportation. As we learned after 9-11, we depend on the airline industry, like it or not.

[ducklite]

So by that logic, every time an airline had a hull loss (often with much lower survivability than 99.6%) they should rename/rebrand or go out of business?

 

They often do, particularly when human error is the cause.

[Boy Blue]

No one knows if human error did cause it!!!!!!!!!

 

Its is all speculation

 

People are still missing

[Cupcrazy]

There is no doubt Costa will survive. They will not rebrand either. What will come out of this is a change in the way they do things. Mainly a change in the way Costa does their muster drill. Every cruise I've been on, they've done the drill before setting sail. I assume Costa will move to something like this for all their ships. I also see better training for all staff. Not just on Costa but all ships. From the reports we've all heard it seems like the staff didn't know what was going on. I believe all cruise lines will see this as a need to better train all staff on what to do in emergency situations.

[ducklite]

If systemically Costa could be shown to be running an unsafe operation, then speculation over its future might be appropriate - but since all we know so far seems to point to errors by individuals, I think we're getting more than a little ahead of ourselves.....and encouraging the Carnival bashers to trot out their old tropes.....

 

As I mentioned earlier, if the cause is proven to be criminal action of the officer(s) the insurer can refuse to pay the claims, which are estimated at 3/4 of a billion USD. Can Costa survive that type of hit? I doubt it.

[Big Chief]

I suspect that Costa will "re-organize" under the Italian equivalent of Bankruptcy; change their name (ex. "Mediteranian Cruise Lines") and continue to operate less one ship.

[Mrs. Wilburforce]

I clearly stated my belief that the future of Costa will be determined by the market. I'm not hoping for failure for any business. I'm simply stating the reality that consumers may feel distrustful and this combined with the cost of the disaster will determine Costa's future.

I'm not rushing to judgement nor am I trying to annoy anyone who feels strongly about a particular brand. I'm just pointing out the obvious in terms of what will come into consideration with Costa.

We will simply have to wait. Costa provides jobs for thousands of employees. I certainly hope, for their sake, that they will continue in some form, be it re-branding or the short memories of most consumers.

 

 

Pan Am was on its last legs - and Concorde was withdrawn because Air France lost money on it and pressured Airbus into withdrawing technical support (even though Air France's maintenance techniques may have played a part in the crash). Air France, however, survived.

 

There's an awful lot of rushing to judgement on an accident where 99.6% survived.....

 

If systemically Costa could be shown to be running an unsafe operation, then speculation over its future might be appropriate - but since all we know so far seems to point to errors by individuals, I think we're getting more than a little ahead of ourselves.....and encouraging the Carnival bashers to trot out their old tropes.....

[guernseyguy]

They often do, particularly when human error is the cause.

Care to name some that have?

 

Off the top of my head, here are some that haven't:

 

British Airways

Air France

KLM

Singapore Airlines

 

Strong brands survive - Costa is a strong brand, and will survive - unless it can be shown that the whole thing was rotten from top to bottom - of which, so far, there is no evidence.....

 

Did Princess survive the Star Princess fire?

[Capricruiser]

Costa will continue to be Costa and will continue to be the cruise line of choice for Italians as well as for Germans and French passengers. In Europe Costa is the number one cruise line while the other Italian line, MSC, is second. MSC ships sail similar itineraries to Costa but has one major factor against it for many Italian cruisers - unlike Costa, MSC ships fly the flag of Panama.

[nigseboy]

everyone is saying will costa survive,it is so sad passangers had to go through this sinking and some lost their life.passangers need help right now,not speculation what will happen to the company.if costa get steel plate welded onto the damaged area and refloat the ship and tow it into a ship yard and repair it and rename it no one will know it was the concordia

[Starry Eyes]

Care to name some that have?

 

Off the top of my head, here are some that haven't:

 

British Airways

Air France

KLM

Singapore Airlines

 

Strong brands survive - Costa is a strong brand, and will survive - unless it can be shown that the whole thing was rotten from top to bottom - of which, so far, there is no evidence.....

 

Did Princess survive the Star Princess fire?

The Star Princess fire was thought to have been caused by careless smoking. It is hard to compare that situation to one where serious navigation questions have been raised and where the captain has been detained (unless the authorities think the Star's captain might have tossed a cigarette:rolleyes:)

 

It seems likely the company will survive if there customer base (largely Italian and other Europeans) chooses to support them. If the customer base turns away, well that is a different story...

[Blizzard54]

You have no idea what you are talking about. Costa has been the number one European cruiseline for about 20 years. Roughly 5 years ago they BEGAN marketing Caribbean cruises to Americans. They have ALWAYS focused on Italy, as they are the number one European cruiseline.

 

I do not know about how Costa is regarded in Europe but they were marketing Caribbean cruises to Americans back when I sailed on the Costa Rivera in 1987.

[2oldjoe]

depends on how many Americans are onboard and will sue to make a fortune of the disaster.

 

 

they can sue but not in american court

[cruiseerf]

Previously I said Costa was known to be the lowest of the low amongst cruiselines.....and I have taken several hits in this thread of people saying they are the number 1 cruiseline in Europe? And they do market to Americans....Not much....This depends....Are they the number one cruiseline because they cram as many people on everyone of their ships as they possibly can? Sacrificing both service and quality? I know not the numbers but perhaps Costa is indeed the number 1 for passengers served in Europe....Especially because most cruiselines move 90% of their ships to the Caribbean for the winter.

 

NOT to say you cannot have an excellent cruise on Costa...I had a great one after graduating college with a bunch of friends..it was cheap food was edible and drinks were cheap! But in retrospect..... it will never compare to Crystal, Regent, Seabourne, Silversea or even Celebrity's new ships etc.....Once you have done a couple hundred nights on these..... Costa may be number 1 in Europe....but not in service, quality or space ratio's...or apparently Captains.......

 

Regardless, to each their own...Just travel safe!

[YII]

First off....Costa has always been the lowest of the low of cruiselines. They stopped marketing to Americans years ago as all they received were complaints...The began to focus on italy and South America, offer kids for free and do whatever it took to fill the ships relying on the onboard spend ....which is quite large considering these ships are built for low staff, many passengers and cheap food. There were 3350 passengers onboard and 1000 staff......

 

 

And ... you're saying this based on what ? I'm very positive that by some means you can get some accurate facts about the number of american passengers they had in the last couple of years if you know how to approach their press bureau ;)

[tntornadox]

Did White Star survive the sinking of the Titanic? Yes, they existed until 1934 when the British Government forced them to merge with Cunard in order to get a loan to complete the Queen Mary during the height of the Great Depression. In fact, White Star had plans for a super-liner of it's own at the time.

 

Did Cunard survive the sinking of the Lusitania and other vessels? Yes.

 

Did Louis Cruise Lines survive the sinking of Sea Diamond? Yes.

 

Did Holland America survive the fire and sinking of the M/S Prinsendam (of 1973)? Yes.

 

Did Lauro Lines survive the Achille Lauro hijacking? Yes, it's now known as MSC Cruises.

 

Will Costa survive? Yes.

 

Costa is Europe's #1 cruise line based off the volume of passengers it typically carries, which is higher than any other brand in Europe and will continue to be. Carnival Corporation has poured a major amount of resources into making sure Costa is and will remain the top dog in Europe. Costa has two more Concordia class ships on order, with one due to enter service this May (restoring the fleet size with the loss of Concordia).

 

Indeed, it could be argued Costa is Carnival's major international brand, it operates in more regions than their other lines. Princess and HAL do as well, but not to the extent Costa does. So, will they survive? You bet. The general public has a short memory and an even shorter attention span.

[Hunwolf]

It's happened in the airline industry. The Concorde, PanAm.

The market will ultimately determine whether it survives. It has or will become a question of trust in Costa's case, which is very difficult for any corporation to regain once consumers feel betrayed by their actions.

 

I'm not sure those are the two best examples. ;)

[Hunwolf]

Care to name some that have?

 

Off the top of my head, here are some that haven't:

 

British Airways

Air France

KLM

Singapore Airlines

 

Strong brands survive - Costa is a strong brand, and will survive - unless it can be shown that the whole thing was rotten from top to bottom - of which, so far, there is no evidence.....

 

Did Princess survive the Star Princess fire?

 

ValuJet was devastated after the crash into the Florida Everglades in the summer of '96. They did comeback in part as AirTran and have rebranded themselves fairly successfully.

 

It really depends on the outcome of the investigation into this incident and how (subsequently) Costa handles the fallout.

[Mrs. Wilburforce]

I'm not sure those are the two best examples. ;)

 

Fair enough ;) But I am remaining firm in my belief that comparing airlines and cruise lines is an apples and oranges exercise.

[ANGSWIN]

I had a fantastic cruise on the Costa Atlantica in April 2010. Despite this disaster, I would sail with them again. Others will, too. It might just take awhile.

 

Even though no terroism was involved, it brings to mind 9/11. People were extremely scared of flying afterwards, but that is certainly not the case now.

[mainelycruising]

No, it wouldn't be able to. That's my point. The poster I answered wanted a definitive answer to her question and I did the best I could, present circumstances accounted for.

I agree with you that the future does not look good for Costa. After Carnival cuts it's losses, who would be in a position to buy Costa, re-brand, and continue to serve it's predominately Italian market...no one.

 

18% was wiped of CCL shares on the FTSE today. That amounts to tens of billions of investors' money gone.

 

CCL can wind up Costa and rebrand the ships as Carnival Europe, P&O or another line they own. Some are old anyway, and could be sold off to Thomson or Louis.

 

The Costa brand is tainted.

[guernseyguy]

The Costa brand is tainted.

No more than an airline after a crash. Carnival corp invests in and differentiates its brands - its certainly not going to 'wind up' its biggest European one....