[IMG=20253-6019]On June 29th the cruise company Costa Cruises will present its new liner Costa Concordia near Rome, while on July 27th an inauguration of MSC Musica will be held in Venice by MSC.
Two companies, competing for the Russian market, plan to work close with their Russian partners. Experts say, that Costa Cruises was always considered an Italian company until it was transferred to the ownership of the American Holding Carnival. After that MSC announced its slogan to be ‘Cruises in Italian Style’. However, if before the competitors were not equal regarding their experience and a number of liners, now ‘new Italian’ is becoming stronger – at the moment Costa Cruises has 13 liners and MSC – 8. ‘Musica is the first of five new liners which MSC plan to launch. In total they plan to invest around 3 billion Euro into the construction of new liners’, commented Maria Malisheva, the Head of Advertising Department of PAC Group, partner of MSC.
Meanwhile, at present Russian tour operators do not rush into banking on either Costa Cruises or MSC in their competition. Thus, Valentin Eliseev, General Director of Neptune, said: ‘Turists book cruises from both companies. I think their competition will not affect the Russian market. For tourists the route is that what matters most’.
