Terror in Turkey, Costa cancels cruises

Genoa - The cruise line Costa Crociere has removed Turkish ports from its routes until early December. The press release to travel agencies arrived earlier this week. From Genoa, the company confirmed that “in order to guarantee the best possible experience for its guests and in response to their wishes, Costa Crociere has decided to replace its planned calls at Istanbul and Izmir with alternative ports in Greece, Italy and Malta. The ships affected are “Costa neoClassica”, “Costa Pacifica” and “Costa Deliziosa”. We are taking care to inform our customers and travel agency partners, and taking every possible measure to limit any inconvenience to our guests who have already booked to get on or off affected cruises.” The Italian ports that will benefit from calls due to this rerouting are Catania, Messina and Corigliano Calabro.”

The reason for the change is the alert issued by the Turkish authorities after the Istanbul attacks on 10 August, the work of far-left terrorists. As of now, Costa is the only company to take such action: travel agencies confirm that the other companies owned by the American Carnival Group (of which Costa is a part) have made no changes to their routes in the area.

MSC will continue to call at Istanbul and Izmir (with three ships), while Gianni Rotondo, general manager at Royal Caribbean Italy, explained that “our company’s reservations have been full for some time, and we have not received cancellations for cruises in that area, so we can confirm that all three of our group’s ships will be there through the end of the season. And by the way, this season is closing with a 25% increase in passengers.”