COSTA DELIZIOSA: INAUGURAL CEREMONY LESS THAN ONE WEEK AWAY

Awe-Inspiring Ceremony Set for February 23 in Dubai – First Cruise Ship to be named in an Arabian City

MIAMI (February 17, 2010) – In less than one week, Costa will show off its signature style of hosting some of the most celebrated inaugurals with the naming of the Costa Deliziosa in Dubai on February 23. This unique and innovative ceremony will be held by the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) together with Costa, Europe’s Number One Cruise Line.

The Costa Deliziosa, which was built in Italy by Fincantieri and delivered in Venice on January 30  of this year, recently set sail from Savona on February 5 for her Grand Inaugural Cruise. The voyage includes stops in the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. The ship will stopover in Dubai from February 23 through the 26.

This 15th member of the Costa fleet is the first cruise ship to be named in an Arabian city.  The ceremony will further strengthen the links between Costa Cruises and the DTCM.  Over 3,000 guests are expected to witness the event, including approximately 2,200 Costa guests traveling on the first sector of the maiden cruise.

En route to Dubai, the Costa Deliziosa – a floating ambassador of Italian-made excellence – will celebrate with two first calls. The first of these new calls is on February 20 in Muscat, the capital of Oman, where a new cruise terminal will be inaugurated as well. The second is on February 22 in Abu Dhabi.  During both stopovers the ship will be met by government delegations and Italian state dignitaries who will pay a special tribute to the Italian Tricolor.

Tuesday, February 23 in Dubai marks the occasion for the grand inaugural event, involving not only the ship but also the new cruise terminal in Port Rashid. Part of the quay will feature a stage and grandstand with seating for 3,000 and will be set up specially to celebrate the Costa Deliziosa.  

The inaugural show is set to be a memorable occasion and will highlight the links between Italian and Arab culture. The first part of the show will take guests on an artistic journey into the history and culture of Dubai and the Emirates with traditional dance and music. The second part will be dedicated to Italian culture, music and art.  Khalid Ahmed Bin Sulayem, director general of the DTCM, and Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and ceo of Costa Crociere S.p.A., will both make speeches. There will also be an exchange of greetings between local dignitaries and their counterparts from the Italian government.  In keeping with tradition, the ceremony will climax with the arrival of the godmother, who will cut the ribbon that will send a bottle of Champagne to  break against the bow of the ship. The event will end with a fireworks display and a gala dinner in traditional Arab style.

The naming ceremony of the Costa Deliziosa in Dubai will be broadcast live on www.costadeliziosa.com. Costa Cruises’ fans can share their thoughts on the event through the company’s various social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Costa Blog).


The inaugural event for the Costa Deliziosa is taking place in Dubai under the patronage of the Italian Embassy to the United Arab Emirates, the Consulate General of Italy in Dubai and the ICE (Istituto Italiano per il Commercio Estero, or Italian Institute of Foreign Trade).  It is being staged in partnership with Alpha Tours, Dnata, Emirates, Grand Hyatt, Gulf Venture, Jumeirah, Maserati and RHS (Raiss Hassan Saadi Group).

This event, which constitutes another milestone in the development of the cruise industry not only in Dubai but also in the region as a whole, is the result of an alliance between Costa Cruises, the first operator in the world to market regular cruises in Dubai beginning in 2006, and the Government of Dubai, through the DTCM. This solid partnership has contributed to the development of local tourism.

Following her Grand Inaugural Cruise, which will continue after the inaugural event to India and the Maldives, in March the Costa Deliziosa will be redeployed back in Dubai where, like her sister ship Costa Luminosa, she will offer 7-night Arabian Gulf cruises. 


The itinerary includes two nights in Dubai and one-day stopovers in the ports of Muscat (Oman), Fujairah and Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) and Bahrain.  The Costa Deliziosa will sail from Dubai every Sunday from March 14 through May 9, 2010. The Costa Luminosa, her sister ship, departs from Dubai every Saturday through April 10, 2010.

In addition, this winter the Costa Europa will operate on 18-night cruises from Savona to Dubai and Dubai to Savona – on an exclusive route crossing the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. In winter 2010/2011, Costa Cruises will once again offer 7-night Gulf cruises on the Costa Deliziosa and Costa Luminosa, the top of the range products for Costa.

In summer of this year and next, the Costa Deliziosa will be deployed on cruises to the Norwegian fjords and Baltic cities. On December 28, 2011, the ship will set sail from Savona on an incredible 100-day world cruise, which may also be broken down into three stand-alone segments:  Savona-Los Angeles; Los Angeles-Singapore; Singapore-Dubai.



Costa Deliziosa
Together with her sister ship Costa Luminosa, the Costa Deliziosa (92,600 tons; 2,260 double occupancy) represents the most exclusive and innovative offerings in the Costa fleet. Am emblem of Italian-made elegance, the ship was built at  Fincantieri’s Venice-Marghera yard in Italy with the labor of approximately 3,000 people, comprising both the shipyard’s own employees and those of nearly 500 contracted suppliers, most of which are Italian firms, with a total investment worth 450 million euros.   


Along with her sister ship, the Costa Luminosa, the Costa Deliziosa is the fleet’s “flagship,” offering the most exclusive and innovative elements in the fleet and designed for Costa’s most discerning clientele. These innovations include the ship’s avant-garde design and the use of premium materials, such as various type of marbles, granite, mother-of-pearl and Murano glass,  and stucco applied by spatula using the technique known as “spatolato veneziano.” Other decorative interior finishes including “parchment scroll” lamé, refined Zebrano wood, Wenge timber and stylish polished and glazed steel were also used in her design. The stunning atrium features fine works of art, including “Sphere” by Arnaldo Pomodoro, and “Delizia fisica e Delizia intellettuale” (Physical Delight and Intellectual Delight), a piece by leading contemporary Italian painter Mario Donizetti. In addition, there are a variety of entertainment options onboard including a 4D cinema; roller skating track; the latest generation golf simulator with an outdoor putting green, a Grand Prix race car driving simulator with the same software and technology used by the F1 champion drivers in training; the exclusive “Samsara Spa,” “PlayStation World,” an area on board dedicated exclusively to PlayStation3, as well as the “PlayStation on demand” cabin service.

The ship is innovative in terms of environmental compliance as well, which has always been one of Costa Cruises’ distinguishing features. Like her sister ship Costa Luminosa, the Costa Deliziosa is the first vessel in Italy and one of the first in the world to be equipped for “cold ironing,” a system whereby the ship is plugged into shoreside electrical power, enabling generators to be shut down during stopovers in port.  This is a way of further reducing the environmental impact of liners when they call at ports.  Other energy- and fuel-saving measures have also been introduced on the Costa Deliziosa, with a reduction in CO2 emissions and the objective of cutting down on wastage in the use of electricity and water.

The DTCM is the principal authority for the development of tourism in Dubai.  Established in 1997, it is the sole body responsible for the licensing of hotels, tour operators and other types of travel trade companies.  Its supervisory role also covers heritage sites, cruise terminals and the Dubai Convention Bureau.  The DTCM has 18 overseas offices, including three in China and two in Saudi Arabia. More information is available at  www.dubaitourism.ae and www.definitelydubai.ae.

Costa Cruises, www.costacruises.com,  is Europe’s Number One Cruise Line.  For more than 60 years its ships have sailed the seas of the world, offering the best in Italian style, hospitality and cuisine and providing dream vacations filled with fun and relaxation. In 2009, 1.3 million guests chose to cruise with Costa, a record for the European cruise industry. The company’s 15 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. Two more new ships are due to enter service by 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, 2007) and quality (UNI EN ISO 9001, 2008). All the 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 WWF Italy for the protection of the Mediterranean Sea. In Mediobanca’s 2009 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 10th in terms of profitability and 65th in terms of sales. In the “Global Reputation Pulse 2009” international study, Costa Cruises ranked first among Italian “service industry” companies. Pulse scores are a measure of corporate reputation of the 600 largest enterprises located in 32 countries worldwide.

Costa Crociere S.p.A. is a member of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world’s largest cruise company.