Costa Cruises Begins Season's First Cruise Ship Voyage With 600 Tourists

Costa Cruises first cruise ship voyage in this season has begun in the Greek island of Corfu with 600 tourists. The new cruise operating in Greece would be 1 of 4 scheduled cruises in the area and they have a strict COVID protocol of crew testing and masks.

Yesterday, Corfu welcomed the first cruise ship to hit the island since the pandemic started, marking a new era of cruising. The cruise industry has been hoping that this new beginning will resurrect the industry which is running in losses since 2020.

As many as 600 tourists belonging to countries like Italy, France, Germany have boarded the Costa Luminosa cruise ship which began its journey from Corfu port.

The cruise ship which is part of the Italian cruise company Costa Cruises has all COVID safety measures in place including testing. Speaking about resuming their cruising activities after the pandemic, many tourists have expressed delight, saying that it feels like freedom and getting out of prison.

On Saturday, Greece had resumed tourist activities from the EU and other countries like the US, Israel and Britain in a bid to resurrect the tourism industry. Peoptravellinging to Greece from these countries no longer need to quarantine if they have been vaccinated or have COVID negative test report.

This cruise ship journey is part of the 4 summer cruise Mediterranean plan that has begun this month. The ship had set sail from Trieste on 16th May and arrived in Corfu yesterday. After this, it will be headed to Athens, Mykonos, the port of Katakolon near Olympia in Greece, and Bari in Italy.

The operation will last till the middle of November during which 27 cruises would be available. As part of the COVID safety plan, Costa Cruises have taken certain steps like reducing the number of passengers, testing throughout the voyage, social distancing and daily temperature checks.

Mask has been declared mandatory at all times in the cruise and the crew have to be tested frequently. The last time the cruise ship Costa Luminosa attempted to sail, it had found 36 COVID infected onboard. This happened in March when the cruise had tested passengers at Marseille.

Reference: cnbctv18.com