The political unrest that has gripped Tunisia in recent weeks has led Costa Crociere to amend its itineraries to the Western Mediterranean and include Malta in its regular stops again this year.

The news comes just three months after the company’s announcement that it had cancelled its regular visits to Malta for 2011. The calls were reinstated after lengthy negotiations between local travel company Orange Cruises (formerly Cruises International) and Costa Crociere.

The cruise line’s 112,000-tonne Costa Concordia will start using Grand Harbour as one of its home ports between April and November.

With the Costa Concordia entering Grand Harbour every week – amounting to 32 calls and more than 100,000 passengers in a year – the Italian company will be offering cruises out of Valletta, as it had been doing for the past six years.