Concordia holidays in disarray for 1,000 Maltese

The holiday plans of some 1,000 Maltese travellers are in disarray following the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia, on which they had booked a cruise during the spring or summer.

Six passengers died and another 16 were still missing yesterday after the 350-metre cruise ship hit rocks off the Italian island of Giglio and capsized. It was sailing too close to shore.

According to Martin Degiorgio, managing director of Orange Travel Group and sales agent for Costa Cruises in Malta, the Concordia’s first scheduled visit to Grand Harbour this year was meant to be on April 14.

Malta is on the itinerary of the Concordia’s summer cruises in the Mediterranean. There were no Maltese passengers on board the ship when she had the fatal accident on Friday night. Mr Degiorgio confirmed that some 1,000 Maltese passengers had booked their holiday aboard the Concordia for the period between April and October.

Orange is in contact with the Concordia’s Italian owners to determine what options they may have available.

The ship operators are currently focussed on the accident and the rescue operations, Mr Degiorgio said, but the company has had some internal discussions on deploying a sister ship on the Concordia’s Mediterranean route.

“If this happens the passengers can still enjoy their holiday on a different ship and, if this is not possible, we will offer alternative holiday arrangements or a full refund,” he said.

The dramatic pictures of a magnificent state-of-the art ship in a semi-submerged state, with a gash running along its underside, have done little to put people off their cruise holidays, according to Mr Degiorgio.

Statistically, cruise ships are still the safest mode of travelling, he added, likening the accident to that of an airplane.

“People do have legitimate concerns and I do not expect them to seek comfort in statistics but when an airplane falls and hundreds are killed, people don’t stop using aircraft,” he said, adding the cruise industry had very high safety standards.

“Unfortunately, people have died and our thoughts are with their families but one must not forget that there were some 4,000 passengers and crew members on board,” Mr Degiorgio said.

This sentiment was shared by Norman Hamilton, owner of Hamilton Travel and agents for MSC Cruises, who said this was “a once in a trillion accident”.

His company has not seen any cancellations as a result of the accident. On the contrary, a pre-planned advertising campaign to sell balcony cabins at a reduced price in April and May has done well.

“We had a substantial number of bookings that were made this morning (yesterday),” Mr Hamilton said, offering his con­dolences to the families of the victims.

Italian investigators believe the Concordia accident was the result of human error when the ship’s captain steered off course to pass by the island of Giglio to please the head waiter, who lives there. The ship’s operator has said the captain committed “errors of judgement”.

In a joint statement yesterday, various international associations linked to the cruise liner industry expressed “deepest sympathies” to the families of passengers and crew who lost loved ones and paid tribute to all those who worked tirelessly to evacuate the ship to help minimise casualties.

The statement was released in Malta by Valletta Cruise Port, the operators of the cruise liner terminal in Grand Harbour.

“We would also like to reassure other cruise ship passengers that all our member lines are subject to the highest safety standards around the world according to international maritime requirements,” the statement said, adding that accidents such as the Concordia one were “an extremely rare occurrence”.