COSTA NORTH AMERICA AWARDED FOUR TRAVEL WEEKLY MAGELLAN AWARDS FOR MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

One Gold and Three Silver Travel Weekly Magellan Awards Awarded to Costa North America Marketing Team
MIAMI (September 16, 2009) – Costa North America has received four Magellan Awards from Travel Weekly, the national newspaper of the U.S. travel industry. From design to marketing services, the Travel Weekly Magellan Awards honors the best in travel and salutes the outstanding travel professionals behind it all.

The Costa North America marketing team, in collaboration with Beber Silverstein Group, won four awards in the cruise ship division. A “Gold Magellan Award” was won for the direct mail “Pizza Delivery” campaign whereby travel agents received Costa’s newest European brochure delivered in a vibrantly styled pizza box.  A “Silver Magellan Award” was won for the team’s “Amenitoni Pasta Box” campaign highlighting group promotions. Travel agents received specially branded Costa pasta, called “Amenitoni,” a twist on the word “amenities.” Group amenities were highlighted on the box along with “cooking instructions” on how to create group business. The marketing team also won a “Silver Magellan Award” for its “Land vs. Sea” advertising campaign, highlighting the benefits of taking a cruise versus a land-based vacation. Rounding out the group of four awards was a “Silver Magellan Award” for the “That’s Amore” print advertising campaign, a variation of the “Cruising Italian Style…that’s Amore” North America branding.

“Our entire marketing team is so honored to receive these accolades, especially from the group of esteemed travel experts judging the Magellan Awards,” said Linda Parrotta, vice president of marketing for Costa North America. “Over the past year, we had to work harder and smarter than ever before to come up with creative ways of conveying our message to both travel agents and consumers. It’s a great feeling to have our hard work rewarded in this way.”

The Magellan Awards are judged and overseen by a one-of-a-kind panel of top travel professionals representing the best names and most accomplished leaders from the industry.   In determining winners, entries do not compete with one another, instead they are judged against a standard of excellence based on the long experience of Travel Weekly. To uphold this high standard of excellence, a category may have multiple winners, or may have no winners at all.  For more information on the Travel Weekly Magellan Awards, please visit  www.travelweeklyawards.com.

Costa Cruises is Italy and Europe’s Number One Cruise Line.  For the past 60 years its ships have sailed the world, offering the best in Italian style, hospitality and cuisine and providing dream vacations with the best in fun and relaxation. In 2008, 1.2 million guests chose to cruise with Costa, a record for the European cruise industry. The company’s 14 fleet members, each with her own distinctive characteristics and unique style, all fly the Italian flag and sail each year to 250 destinations in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Baltic Sea, the Caribbean, South America, the United Arab Emirates, the Far East and the Indian Ocean. Three additional ships are on order through 2012.

Costa Cruises has been certified by RINA (Italian Shipping Register) with the BEST4, an integrated system of voluntary certification of corporate compliance with the highest standards governing social accountability (SA 8000, issued in 2001), environment (UNI EN ISO 14001, 2004), safety (OHSAS 18001, 1999) and quality (UNI EN ISO 9001, 2000). All ships in the Costa fleet have been assigned RINA’s Green Star notation certifying that they are operated in compliance with the highest environmental protection standards. Costa Cruises is an official partner of the WWF for the protection of the marine ecoregions of the Mediterranean, the Greater Antilles and Brazil.  In Mediobanca’s 2008 survey of over 3,700 Italian enterprises that recorded revenue of at least 50 million euros the previous fiscal year, Costa Crociere S.p.A. ranks 72nd in terms of sales and in 12th place in regards to profitability.