Costa Cruises’s Mediterranea chooses Venice

Trieste - Costa Cruises cancelled the Costa Mediterranea’s overnight stop in Trieste and added a call to Venice to the ship’s 2015 Adriatic itinerary. The news, which came out a few days ago, is causing some frustration in Trieste. But is this decision really so threatening to the city? First of all, we should be clear that the ship’s calls at Trieste have not been cancelled, but only reduced in duration. The original programme called for the ships to dock at the Molo Bersaglieri wharf maritime station on Friday mornings and depart on Saturday evenings, a total of 28 times. This way, one day would be for passenger boarding/disembarking, and the other day for tourists to explore the area. With the new programming, however, the ship will be in Venice on Friday and then after a brief low-speed transfer, call at Trieste on Saturday. “The goal is to further enrich our tourist offering for Mediterranea’s itinerary, and consequently to attract a segment of international clients that are of great interest to Trieste and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region. We will offer cruises that include two beautiful Italian cities, Venice and Trieste, in a single vacation, with the possibility of boarding from either port,” a spokesperson for Genoa-based Costa Cruises explained. Costa also stated that the Trieste Passenger Terminal will move 80,000 guests with the new programme (60,000 boarding/disembarking and 20,000 in transit for a total of 140,000 according to the Port Authority’s estimates). There will probably be losses for the city’s receptive structures, but the positive fact remains that all those who board in Venice will be able stop at Trieste to visit the city on a day of the week when the city’s shops and other businesses are open.

But what are the most likely reasons that led to this decision? First of all, one must remember that Mediterranea weighs 85,619 tonnes, therefore it is beneath the 96,000 tonnes dead weight limit for passing through the San Marco basin that the companies imposed on themselves after an agreement with the government. We must remember that the Regional Administrative Court of the Veneto ruled that this limit was illegitimate. Therefore Costa has always been able to use this kind of ship in Venice, but had originally called only at Trieste, probably because of the opposition to the presence of cruise ships in the Lagoon, and because as part of the cartel that controls TPT, Costa wanted to give a strong boost to the port of Trieste. The problems appeared when it became clear that the distance between Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the rest of Italy was too great, and would not attract the amount of passenger reservations to sufficiently fill the ship at Trieste. Furthermore, the attempt to attract cruise ships beyond Italy’s borders, and first of all in Slovenia, did not have the expected results. Another critical factor were the excursions to Venice that had been provided by rail. In the majority of cases, the excessive time the train took to cover the distance (about 2 hours) made the organisation of the transfers very complicated and therefore Costa Cruises probably chose to take the ship directly into the Lagoon, bypassing the obstacle.