The Costa Magica cruise liner berthed in Valletta yesterday, replacing the ill-fated Concordia that sank off Italy on January 13. It is scheduled to call 29 times during the season.

These weekly calls had been threatened by the tragedy that cost the lives of 32 passengers.

But the cruise liner company is actually “growing”, it was stressed yesterday. Costa Cruises will have eight ships calling at Valletta 61 times and carrying 170,000 passengers to the island until the end of October.

The message from the company was that Costa Cruises, “Italy’s largest Italian travel group”, was strong and resilient.

In 2013, its liners will be making even more calls – 63 – to Malta, bringing an additional 10,000 visitors.

Orange Travel Group, Costa’s local sales agent, admitted bookings did drop slightly after the sinking. But only 10 per cent of clients who had booked a cruise on the Concordia back in October and November took up an offer for a full refund, instead of shifting to the 103,000-tonne Magica.

Executive commercial director Michael Abele was confident the Maltese were so accustomed to the cruise industry that they would reach their own conclusions, adding that cruises were statistically the safest way to travel.

It is estimated that about 17,000 Maltese leave on cruises from Malta each year. At four per cent of the population, this is more than double other European countries.

Following the shipwreck, Costa has revised some security procedures, including carrying out the emergency drill immediately on embarkation and not within 24 hours, as stipulated by international law.

The change was introduced in February and adopted by other cruise liners shortly afterwards, company sales and marketing director Dario Rustico said.

Passengers had not yet undergone the emergency drill when the Concordia ran aground, because they had just boarded, which was one of the issues raised in the aftermath of the incident.

Costa Cruises was awaiting the outcome of investigations into what actually happened that fateful night to carry out any other corrective action on safety measures.

“We are eagerly waiting to hear what happened on board that night. The Voyage Data Recorder registration would shed light on what occurred in the bridge. We have not been able to access the ship, so we could not touch and review any data and it would be unfair to comment without precise information,” Mr Rustico said about the Concordia’s notorious Capt. Francesco Schiettino, who has been accused of abandoning ship.

Cruise prices are 25 per cent cheaper than last year and the early booking discount has been extended to mid-May.