Costa Cruises has gathered together 1,600 travel agents and journalists specialised in the cruise industry from the whole Europe on board of the Costa Pacífica in its annual event Protagonisti del Mare.

Costa Cruises´s General Manager, Neil Palomba attended the specialised media that took care of the specialised media that covered the annual award ceremony to the best travel agencies in different categories-Geographical Area, Top ten and Over the top- . Furthermore, on this occasio, the cruise line offered two new awards: Smart Business, which award the most innovative agency and Best Seller of Costa Fly&Cruise Packages. On top of these nominations in categories such as the best agencies online in Europe.

Cruise Protagonisti del Mare 2017 news from Costa Cruises 2018, view from Costa Pacífica.

New ships from Costa Cruises

As it was announced, from 2019 Costa will with two new cruise ships. One of them is being built in the shipyard of Meyer in Turku (Finland). Neil Palomba led in the press conference that the ship isgoing to be the relaunch of the brand and the new italian cruise line of the shipping company. At the same time, Palomba, explained  that the name of the new Costa Cruises ship  is not going to be revealed as yet, but the cabin prototypes exist already and they are a forward leap  towards the standard current cabins. Palomba mentioned that ir was a challenge  the fact of commercialising new concepts through the new boats from the same brand because “Costa´s soul uf the essence of the company and is going to be present in the new incorporations to the fleet”.

Crucero Protagonisti del Mare 2017 novedades Costa Cruceros 2018

The sustainability on board of Costa Cruises ships

Neil Palomba explained as well in the gathering with the with  Protagonisti del Mare 2017 the actions of the shipping company in order to work towards the sustainability  and the characteristics of the plan See you Tomorrow.

The positive economical impact  from the cruise sector was highlighted and  explained that Costa had analysed the economical repercusion  of the cruise line stops in Savona. More than one million passengers have generated an impact of 38 millions of Euros of the PIB in Savona, 120 Euros per inhabitant in town.

Costa´s General Manager mentioned as well the actions against the food waste through electronic food orders  from the waiti

waiters and the adaptation of the food quantities that are necessaries to feed the passage. As well as raising awareness amongst the guests, from the investment in agricultural programmes in Africa and the launch of the pilot programme  in Costa Diadema that monitors the food in different parts of the ship to analyse the production processes.

Cruisehip Protagonisti del Mare 2017 news Costa Cruceros 2018

Costa disembarks food is some ports and this is sent to the  Food bank.

In addtion, it counts with a environmental programme in which our aim is to reduce the motors boat emission impact. “This is a differential issue because travelling with Costa means sharing this values”, said Palomba.

Connectivity and technology in the Costa Cruises ships

Due to the gradual introduction of technological innovations in the boats, Palomba said that “technology helps us improving the guests experience but I do not think that replace the human factor”.

At the same time, Palomba approached the topic of productivity as one of the best ways of promoting Costa as a product.  “The customer typologies´s experience that we offer to our guests starts  from the moment they live the house until they come back home”, he explained. The main goal is to combine the airlines and to bet on the  transport by train.

Cruise ship  Protagonisti del Mare 2017 novelties in Costa Cruceros 2018

The tips in Costa Cruises. Are they going to disappear?

During the event Protagonisti del Mare, Neil Palomba was asked about the position of the shipping company about charging the service taxes as it was implemented by the competitors.   To this issue the General Manager of Costa Cruises said that ” it is not important that the other cruise lines remove their tips. We are always avant-garde and we have an objective. We are valuing the fact of  including the service tax at the booking stage, this is to charge them beore boarding “. They are not going to be eliminated because they cover the service costs. In some countries we charge beforehand . We are considering extending this policy to the rest of the countries”, he pointed out.

Palomba was asked as well about the new itineraries from the Costa ships and about Cuba. The fact that might be a posible destination towards the next seasons. To this respect, the General Director of Costa said that it is not in their plans but it will be taken into consideration de moment that the cruise line has new ships.

About the promotional collaboration with Shakira, the directive team of Costa Cruises explained that the publicity is working very well because it creates demand and atracts new clients. It helps to improve a company reputation and positions Costa against the competitors. What company can have a future if it does attrat new clients and allows to increase a new dimension in the market?.

In relation with the collaboration with the Chef Buno Barbieri, Costa´s general manager highlighted that it comes backs to its origins with the Italy´s Finest. Italian service with Italian product. The production of the regional menus with italian products on board  it is not the only input to the new fleet in this sense. As Palomba said,  as well as  they will be introduced italian brands in other aspects of the new Costa ships such as the furniture and educational elements.

The new menu for Costa Cruises designed by the chef Bruno Barbieri

The event Protagonisti del Mare from Costa Cruises was the ideal scenario for the presentation of the new menu that Chef Barbieri  designed for the cruise line.

An emotional trip made through the cuisine made with the heart. This is how the cuisine from chef Barbieri defines its cuisine. A food lover who was born in Bolonia and started its career on board of a cruiseship after getting his degree in hospitality management at Emilia Romana .

Back in his home town, Bruno Barbieri opened his restaurant, which was the beginning of a successful career that got him 7 Michelin stars. Today Barbieri just openened a new restaurant in in Bolonia called Fourghetti  and he is a television star from the culinary programme MasterChef en Italia,as well as its Junior version.

The food in Costa cruises is one of the unique factors of the shipping company. In the photo above mozzarella and vegetables rolls.

Recently, just renewed its collaboration with Costa Cruises and its new menu designed for the cruises from the shipping company anf it was presented during the event Protagonisti del Mare 2017. The new menu will be accompanied  by the innitiative Bravo Chef, in which it will be allowed to the passengers appreciate the culinary offer from Costa.

The Barbieri menu from Costa includes a vegetarian version with culinary delights sucha as spinach pudding with tomato confit as a starters, vegetarian soups and fruit desserts. On top of that the Barbieri dishes mixed up all the flavours all the flavour from the Mediterranean such as parmesan cheese, salmon, calf, lamb and sword fish, all of them prepared with vegetables and aromatic herbs.